Auden in an age of anxiety

Auden in the Age of Anxiety

A recent BBC programme on WH Auden sent me back to his poems, and to the biography by Humphrey Carpenter. The programme sought to bring Auden’s poetic themes to bear on our “Age of Anxiety” (so labelled by the programme’s title). Auden’s own Age of Anxiety was, of course, the 1930s, when Europe and other parts of the world once more lurched towards global war.

Giselle at Sadler's Wells

Giselle at Sadler’s Wells

I am not a regular dance or ballet goer. Indeed the shows I’ve attended can be counted on the fingers of one hand (or perhaps that should be the points of one foot). So, in keeping with the spirit of these times, I’m proud to be a non-expert. Therefore it was with a very open mind (that is, a mind vacant both of pre-conceptions and any relevant knowledge of the dance)  that I attended Sadler’s Wells to see the much acclaimed English National Ballet production of Giselle, guest of a family member who is an aficionado and amateur dancer.

The Oxford train from Marylebone

The Oxford Train from Marylebone

Marylebone station is a London terminus. It is a terminus for a few mainline destinations – Birmingham, and now Oxford; otherwise for commuter communities and various towns in the West Midlands (including, indirectly Stratford-on-Avon). But it is distinctly off-line in many respects.

Plains and planes of Carcassonne

The plains and planes of Carcassonne

“The people of Crete unfortunately make more history than they can consume locally.” This passage from “Saki”, the Edwardian writer of sardonic, sometimes cruel, but always witty, short stories, kept popping into my head during a short visit to the area North-East of Carcassonne in South-West France.

Giacometti; Venice Biennale 2017

Giacometti at Tate Modern; Venice Biennale 2017

Giacometti

One can understand why the existentialists liked Giacometti. His schtick is stick people; and what art could be more eloquent about the fragility, almost Nothingness of Being (Le Neant in Sartre’s phrase), yet still suggesting movement and thereby human potential? Survivors of concentration camp and gulag, but striding rather than staggering.

Live Streaming of Verdi's Otello

Live Streaming of Verdi’s Otello from the Royal Opera House

I wondered about the techniques used in the live streaming of opera when I wrote about Il Trovatore (February 2017). I felt that close up camera work often did the performers no favours and detracted from the staging – an opera’s audience is supposed to see each part in the context of the whole, as presented by the director, set designer and choreographer on the stage.

Democracy's Fatal Virus: Faction

Faction: Democracy’s Fatal Virus?

When I hear people say we need to reach across the aisle and work with the Democrats, you know what I say? The only reason I’ll be reaching across the aisle is to grab one of them by the throat.

(elected State official in the US)

Politics in the US has become a “vetocracy”, where it is far easier to prevent things getting done than to build something new….Part of it comes from the spread of partisanship at all levels..

(David Runciman, London Review of Books, 29^th June 2017)

Perhaps there comes a state of chronic dysfunction for democratic systems of government, no matter how well designed or embedded.

It happens when faction is in ascendant and becomes, for the foreseeable future, ineradicable.