Stories | Wandering in Multi Universes of Mind and Life

Category: Stories
- Tolkien The Lord of the Rings
  
  Posted at 4:31 pm by A M Zénon, on December 9, 2020
  
  Absolutely surprised I was, when during the first corona lockdown, I sat down, and started reading Tolkien’s Hobbit, and immediately thereafter The Lord of the Rings, almost without significant interruption, in days to the end. The Hobbit only on the Kindle App. The Lord of the Rings in the 50th anniversary edition of Houghton Mifflin.
  
  I was always reticent to start, because I had viewed some pieces from the movies. I was afraid it was more of some fantasy war stories.
  
  Yet it gripped my intention as a kind of bildungsroman, as a path through life, going through difficult periodes in life. And all with great attention to feelings, thoughts, misery and happiness, of the surrounding earth, friendship, and especially for the feelings of others. Most of all struck me of course Frodo, the young one, with all his doubts, fear, and still going on. And of course Sam, the best of friends.
  
  I have read from youth much of the great world literature. As in all those novels there are human and social relations which belong to other times than ours. This book is written in its own time, by Tolkien has been, in his time.
  
  And I think to feel constantly the horrors of WWI and WWII, even as this is not the attention of the author.
  
  I read first the Kindle edition. That’s fine for making notes and quickly rereading the most beautiful and memorable passages.
  
  But after that I read Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings in the beautiful 50th anniversary edition of Houghton Mifflin. Because I thought this is a book that was made for reading with all the senses, with the beautiful black cover and the golden text of front cover and spine. The light brown pages are gentle for the eyes and for the mind. It was part of the same feeling, the beautiful gentle book in my hands and the wandering with these wonderful friends, especially when they were wandering through their natural world, of trees, flowers, animals, and human beings.
  
  I was reading as I did as a child, in an easy chair, with all other senses away from the rest of the world, completely living in a wonderful world of nature, flowers, plants, mountains, travelling, fear, horror, cold, but above all human heroism and human friendship.
  
  It is wonderful story, because Tolkien recreates his own world, and shares it with us. Tolkien, Frodo and Sam and Merry and Pippin…
  
  Posted in Literature, Magical, Reading, Stories | 0 Comments | Tagged Literature, Reading, Tolkien
- Opera in Daily Life: Don Juan in Hankey, PA
  
  Posted at 5:05 pm by A M Zénon, on March 7, 2012
  
  Don Juan in Hankey is a novel about an opera company, which is preparing a new production of Don Giovanni, about the acts and the thoughts of all the people involved. It is a wonderful story. The plot you must read yourself.
  
  It reads as a satire, but with serious nuances. There is a lot to laugh about, as always, about the protagonists and about you, if you recognize yourself in one or more of the characters. It was difficult for me to stop reading, because of the many cliffhangers. I was curious each chapter, each page, sometimes each sentence, to the next event.
  
  The description of the acts and the emotions of the characters is especially bright. I had the feeling as if I was there myself.
  
  What makes this novel so special, that are the many levels to discover and enjoy, as in every good novel.
  
  There is the story about the lives of the principal characters.
  The story about the opera company, which is creating a new production and trying to overcome all the problems, recalls the difficulties of teamwork.
  In the communication between the protagonists, you can hear them thinking, anticipating, preparing their responses to the other members of the Guild. It is a way of communication in our modern times. Be careful for the feelings of others in what you say and be willing to soften you words.
  
  It is also a story about the essence of human life, of the energy of human beings, of getting up after a setback, of optimism.
  
  The ‘colors of the language’, a good story can be like a painting, remind me of the bright colors of modern city life.
  
  The storyline and the way of telling remind me of the opera Don Giovanni, with its many scenes and its lively phrases.
  
  Above all, the ‘music of the language’, language can have a musical quality, is like the music of Mozart and Don Giovanni, lively and bright.
  
  It was a great pleasure to read this musical novel. I think it will be for all members of opera companies, opera singers and opera lovers, and for all lovers of a novel about modern life. Recommended!
  
  Don Juan in Hankey, PA
  
  Posted in Joy, Literature, Opera, Stories | 0 Comments | Tagged Don Giovanni, Don Juan, Gale Martin, Literature, Mozart, Opera, Reading
- Fülle des Wohllauts
  
  Posted at 2:49 pm by A M Zénon, on March 19, 2011
  
  No chapter from a novel describes the delight of the opera lover
  as beautifully as the above section from Der Zauberberg.
  Nobody has written about opera as beautifully as Thomas Mann:
  
  ‘Ein international Chor gefeierter Sänger und Sängerinnen setzte, begleitet von diskret zurücktretendem Orchester, die hochgeschulte Gottesgabe seiner Stimmen ein zur Ausführung von Arien, Duetten, ganzen Ensembleszenen aus den verschiedenen Gegenden und Epochen des musikalischen Theaters:der südlichen Schönheitssphäre einer zugleich hoch-und leichtherzigen Hingerissenheit, einer deutsch-volkhaften Welt von Schalkheit und Dämonie, der französischen Grossen und Komischen Oper.’
  
  Der Zauberberg is a ‘Bildungsroman’. The protagonist Hans Castorp, a young engineer, travels to Davos to visit his cousin Joachim, who remains a long period in a sanatorium. Soon Hans forgets to return home. He is intrigued by life in the small community. The following years, he learns much about life, love, friendship, world views and opera.
  
  It is in the chapter about music, Fülle des Wohllauts, that we see Hans Castorp reveling in the most beautiful opera arias. Hans gets access to a beautiful gramophone with the brand name ‘Polyhymnia’.
  He makes sure he is alone in the music room and starts listening to famous opera arias for hours.
  
  Below, some of the arias Thomas Mann and his protagonist listened frequently to, with quotations from Fülle des Wohllauts:
  
  Aida:
  
  ‘Der unvergleichliche Tenor, der fürstliche Alt mit dem herrlichen Stimmbruch in der Mitte seines Umfanges und der silberne Sopran…’
  ‘..nun öffne sich der Himmel und ihrem Sehnen erstrahlte das Licht der Ewigkeit.’
  
  Enrico Caruso and Johanna Gadski: O Terra Addio 1909
  
  Aureliano Pertile Dusolina Giannini Carlo Sabajno: O Terra Addio 1928
  
  Carmen:
  
  ‘Der Soldat sang von der Blume, die Carmen ihm am Anfang ihrer Bekanntschaft zugeworfen, und die im schweren Arrest, worein er um ihretwillen geraten, sein ein und alles gewesen sei.’
  ‘Und ewig dir gehör ich an, liess danach die Stimme um zehn Töne sinken und bekannte erschüttert sein Carmen, ich liebe dich.’
  
  Alfred Piccaver: Blumenarie Hier an dem Herzen treu geborgen 1920
  
  Faust:
  
  Hans Castorp feels particularly sympathetic to Valentin, who reminds him of his recently
  deceased cousin Joachim, who had served in the army.
  
  ‘Jemand trat auf, jemand Erz-Sympatisches, der Valentin hiess, den aber Hans Castorp im Stillen anders nannte…’
  
  Hans Nissen: Da ich nun verlassen soll
  
  Der Lindenbaum:
  
  At the end of the story we find Hans Castorp back in the mud of the battlefields of WWI, singing:
  
  ‘Ich schnitt in seiner Rinde so manches liebe Wort …’
  ‘Und sei-ne Zweige rau-uschten, als rie-fen sie mir zu-‘
  
  Richard Tauber: Der Lindenbaum 1927
  
  Der Zauberberg is one of my favorite novels. I read and re-read it in different stages of my life, or sometimes only out of love for it. It is not only the story, which is holding my attention. It is also the enchanting narrative style.
  The best edition is the Grosse Kommentierte Frankfurter Ausgabe from S.Fischer Verlag, from which the quotations are. However, I think each edition will be good.
  
  Many opera lovers will share the feelings of Thomas Mann and his protagonist, and me, for the enchantment of opera. Attending a live performance is beautiful. Listening to records or CDs of the great arias at home has its own delight.
  
  Wikipedia The Magic Mountain
  DVD with Christoph Eichhorn as Hans Castorp
  Thomas Mann Der Zauberberg Grosse Kommentierte Frankfurter Ausgabe
  
  Posted in Classical Music, Joy, Lifelong Love, Literature, Magical, Opera, Stories | 0 Comments | Tagged Aida, Carmen, Christoph Eichhorn, Der Lindenbaum, Der Zauberberg, Faust, Listening, Reading, Thomas Mann
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