CODA: As I said, the wheel is done. You did ask civilly about Carmen and so I will answer as best I can. I'm not sure what you are asking about.
A "Gypsy Carmen" or "Esperanza's Hope" was a production that I conceived, directed and conducted at LaMama Theater in New York City. It was advised by the Gypsy Representative to the UN Ian Hancock. Three years ago my computer crashed and the market systems of the West making programs obsolete after a couple of years, took all of my work on that production and destroyed it. All I have are hard copies and I neither have the desire nor time to scan them in for your use. I can say that the production was set post WWII when a group of Gypsy opera singers from all over Europe and the Americas met in a cave in Spain where there is a theater. In that cave they hoped to revive their careers and their connection to the opera Carmen that they considered to be one of the stereotypical art works that branded the Gypsies as thieves and whores by trade and thus contributed to the image that they felt caused their Holocaust at the hands of the Germans. (The story is fiction but that fact is true.) Because they were professionals they felt they had to overcome artistically the problem with the opera Carmen and truly create a production that their side of the story. A real "Gypsy" version of Carmen. Only one child had survived the camps. Esperanza, the child of a Gypsy baritone who made his living singing Escamillo. As the production within a production progressed, the child came to represent all of the Gypsy children who had died. She saw the virus of the old story begin to shape the people that she loved in toxic ways and she discovered that a real knife had been substituted for the stage knife that would kill Carmen. At the end she ran between Jose and Carmen and was killed. The hope had been destroyed by the individual notions of value as each individual made choices that would subvert the community and its reason for existing there, in that cave, in the first place. Rather than a new Romany artistry emerging from the cave, it was the same old story of selfishness, lust and venality that they had learned so well in existing as travelers for a thousand years in the Western world after they came out of India. Here is the opening song sung by the narrator: The Carmen within the story is Bizet. The story outside and the text is my own. (That we remember that there are others) A GYPSY CARMEN (Esperanza's Hope) Dedicated to Ian Hancock a thousand years as singers, dancers, warriors against the hoard we spread the blanket and their artists came and feasted. in the morning we were gone leaving only the tracks of wagons. we came but never invaded! our children: taken, enslaved, hunted for game and yet the eating of a single apple made us thieves. an empty rut creates fantasy in the minds of the impure. we could speak to them but rarely could they speak to us their feet dance our movements their ears hear our violins their voices sing our songs their seats sit in our chairs. eventually the gadje thief must kill lest he know the emptiness of his own roots. their fantasy become a cup of broken glass. in the beginning was our mother the fire as she grew she broke into a thousand sparks each spark became a gypsy and each gypsy carries that spark. in this cave we return the fire to carmen and to our lives as artists. Copyright 1994 Ray Evans Harrell -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Christoph Reuss Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2010 3:41 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Futurework] "prejudiced, bigoted and stereotypical" REH wrote: > What has Jewish speculators like Soros done to you personally? It doesn't matter. What matters is the role of Predators in society, and Soros is a well-known prime example by which their ways can be illustrated, and this is an individual & issue (euro crisis etc.) that is very much in the news these days -- that's why I was writing about this individual. > Your anger is very intense and personal and I haven't and still don't > understand it's roots. What have they done to you? Predators have ruined whole societies and so many families and individuals -- including yours -- that my person or family doesn't matter particularly in the big picture. But it is also true that the damage in this case is vast and includes death of very close relatives. > I'm happy defending Gypsies but they are not my people and I only struggle > to tell the truth about how they've been treated. So where's the story of Carmen? > I defend > justice but it doesn't have the passion and the anger that I feel around my > own people, family and my profession. I'll go the mile but it's not in my > gut the way the actual doing to me personally is in my gut. The other is > more philosophical. I have Jewish and Black relatives and I have defense > of them personally in my gut. To defend justice, it shouldn't matter whether you have Jewish and Black relatives. Justice is universal. > But you wouldn't join the army would > you? Not even if it meant your family lived? If your joining the army was really the only possibility for your family to survive, it may be acceptable as "pragmatism over principles" -- but then you are not in a position to accuse "the Swiss" of collaboration while locked in between the Axis powers in WW2. > Indians have defended > America in the Armed Forces in higher numbers than any other ethnic group, > majority or minority. Actually I'm proud of my service. I still don't understand why. It is one thing to do it for survival, but it's another thing to be proud of it. Elsewhere you mentioned the Stockholm syndrome. And maybe it's also a selection issue: The settlers have been killing the resisting characters among the Natives for centuries, so what's left is the "poodle" characters who eagerly defend their masters. > Today, people using the same language and attitude you show are carrying > guns and stockpiling ammunition and using YOU and your country as their > ideal against an unarmed left wing in America that they see as controlling > the government and their lives. Why do you blame me and my country for these morons? Is there any sort of consent from "the Swiss" for the NRA's instrumentalizing of Switzerland? I have looked at the NRA "copy" and must say they are perverting reality. Because the Swiss "carrying guns and stockpiling ammo" has historically always been directed against foreign grabbers (as in the story of William Tell). Whereas the NRA's guns&ammo are historically BY the foreign grabbers against the Natives who want to take back the stolen land/assets. In other words, the NRA converts defense of freedom to defense of oppression. You can't blame "the Swiss" for being misused in such a perverted way. > A left wing that is so tepid that in my > "time" they would have been called right wing. These people today are not > my America. But their attitudes towards guns they give you credit for. You apply double standards. On the one hand, you are distinguishing "their America" from your America. But OTOH, you are lumping together not only all Swiss (even those who have parted with Switzerland), but even "the Swiss" with the NRA / "Tea Party"! That doesn't fit together. > I've walked the circle with you and we are now back where we started. It > is at this point that I choose to get off the wheel. The Predator issue is divisive and the lessons to draw are interesting. > I made my peace with America in spite of the Topdog arrogance of the > majority and that includes Swiss expatriates living here. Not that they are > any worse than any other group. Now that sounds much better than before... > Still I don't choose to scrape the scabs > off of my scars just for anyone's enjoyment. I never expected or even asked you to do that, and it wouldn't be for my enjoyment. I just objected to selective bashing/exaggerating of one nation's contribution to the pillage of America. Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
