Opera in SecondLife

I attended the premiere of an opera at the Theater on the Hill yesterday. The company performed the first act of Richard Wagner's "Die Walküre" with Silvano Korobase, Oliver Elton and Richardson Nootan.

The storyline of the first act (according to Wikipedia) with pictures from yesterdays performance:

"During a raging storm, Siegmund seeks shelter at the house of the warrior Hunding. Hunding is not present, and Siegmund is greeted by Sieglinde, Hunding's unhappy wife. Siegmund tells her that he is fleeing from enemies. After taking a drink of mead, he moves to leave, claiming to be cursed by misfortune. But Sieglinde bids him stay, saying he can bring no misfortune to the "house where ill luck lives".

 Returning, Hunding reluctantly offers Siegmund the hospitality demanded by custom. Sieglinde, increasingly fascinated by the visitor, urges him to tell his tale. Siegmund describes returning home with his father one day to find his mother dead and his twin sister abducted. He then wandered with his father until parting from him as well. One day he found a girl being forced into marriage and fought with the girl's relatives. His weapons were broken and the bride was killed, and he was forced to flee to Hunding's home. Initially Siegmund does not reveal his name, choosing to call himself Wehwalt, 'filled with woe'.

When Siegmund finishes, Hunding reveals that he is one of Siegmund's pursuers. He grants Siegmund a night's stay, but they are to do battle in the morning. Hunding leaves the room with Sieglinde, ignoring his wife's distress. Siegmund laments his misfortune, recalling his father's promise that he would find a sword when he most needed it.

Sieglinde returns, having drugged Hunding's drink to send him into a deep sleep. She reveals that she was forced into a marriage with Hunding. During their wedding feast, an old man appeared and plunged a sword into the trunk of the ash tree in the center of the room, which neither Hunding nor any of his companions could remove. She expresses her longing for the hero who could draw the sword and save her. Siegmund expresses his love for her, which she reciprocates, and as she strives to understand her recognition of him, she realises it is in the echo of her own voice, and reflection of her image, that she already knows him. When he speaks the name of his father, Wälse, she declares that he is Siegmund, and that the Wanderer left the sword for him.

 Siegmund now easily draws the sword forth, and she tells him she is Sieglinde, his twin sister. He names the blade "Nothung" (or needful, for this is the weapon that he needs for his forthcoming fight with Hunding). As the act closes he calls her "bride and sister", and draws her to him with passionate fervour."

It was overall an extremely interesting experience to watch and listen to the performance, although I am not an opera buff myself and cannot tell you who the singers were. Opera is in itself an acquired taste and will, in my humble opinion, most likely prove to be so in SecondLife also.

Those of us at the premiere and sharing the experience with the cast and crew were overwhelmingly enthusiastic, but more so for the effort the company had put into this production than anything else.

You have a chance to catch the performance on Sunday September 22, 2013, at 12:00PM SLT. Your limousine to the opera (SLurl)

Results of the Poll On My Ass

Recently I asked you, my dear friends and readers, how you would react to my stunning derriere.

The poll concluded after a week and I am now happy to present the results.

Fortytwo responded and of these
25 respondents (59%); proved that they have excellent and impeccable taste while
4 respondents (10%); proved they have no taste at all and
13 respondents (31%); proved that they are jealous as hell of my plump, cute, awesome, perky, fluffy and furry ass.

"Over the Rainbow"

The American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato sings "Over the Rainbow" at BBC's "Last Night of the Proms 2013".

From the WXQR Blog: "Last Night of the Proms Tinged With Themes of Equality" by Brian Wise

"DiDonato has long been identified with the song popularized by Judy Garland, but this will be the first time she has sung it in public since Russia passed anti-gay legislation earlier this year. Writing on her blog, DiDonato said:

'We programmed ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ ages ago, but as the Russian law came into focus and I felt this impending sense of dread wash over me, I knew that I simply had to personally dedicate my performance on Saturday to all of those brave, valorous gay and lesbian souls whose voices are currently being silenced – either by family, friends, or by their government.'

Acknowledging that the Proms has strict rules against political messages, DiDonato said she will not speak from the stage, however.

"It’s not as if she’s doing it in Russia, where the problem is," noted Morrison. "The UK is a pretty tolerant place for gays and everyone else. I think she’s using the global televised audience for this event to make a point. That's fair enough."

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I would like to thank Loan (Loo Berensohn) deeply for her kindness in bringing this performance to my attention. I have never in my life heard the song sung better and the hairs of my whole body stood in salute at the end. This is magnificent and totally incredible!

"And the Oscar Goes To..."

Yesterday there was a "Celebrity Look-A-Like" party at "Q" Lounge, but I didn't know that because Butch just told me to dress up as someone famous. The first thing on my mind was "autumn" and that made me remember my falling leaves outfit. So I said to myself, "I'll go as Adam".

When I arrived to the venue it turned out that it was a Hollywood style red carpet affair, so I was completely out of place. Well, as usual I soon forgot my temporary discomfort and started enjoying Arcangelo "Dj Arcy" Hellman's music instead.

DJ Arcy as Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli  in "Cabaret" 

Spanki as "Spiderman"

I as Adam and Butch as Buster Keaton

"The beauty and the beast" with someone as the
creature from Alien and Primrose being her beautiful self

Adam shows more (it's an adult sim)

Karin Brune (this woman is going to turn me straight if I see her often enough),
here seen dancing with her husband Fredy

"An Overwhelming Experience"

The Theater on the Hill Company has given its guests many wonderful and entertaining musicals, shows, cabarets and plays through the years, but now they are pulling all the stops and going all out and promise their guests "an overwhelming experience".

For - perhaps - the first time in SecondLife The Theater on the Hill is going to treat its patrons with a full blown dramatic opera with stunning effects. The opera is Richard Wagner's "Die Walküre", act 1.

"Siegmund" will be portrayed by Silvano Korobase, "Sieglinde" by Oliver Elton and "Hunding" by Richardson Nootan.

Subtitles in English will be provided for those who are not fluent in the German language of the opera.

The opera premieres on Tuesday September 17, 2013, at 1:00PM SLT. If you cannot catch that performance you have a second chance on Sunday September 22, 2013, at 12:00PM SLT.

Your limousine to the opera (SLurl) 

Temper Tantrums, Thrills & Tribulations

I crawled out of my warm and cosy bed at 4.30AM local time to attend the SP2014 emergency board meeting called yesterday at 8PM SLT. Let me assure anyone that doesn't know me well that this was a great sacrifice on my part for my  readers and for the membership of Second Pride.

When I logged in-world I grumbled a little at my sweet brother in-law Dejeritty, checked if what I was wearing was decent enough and then teleported to the Second Pride sim.

The sim which once was beautiful nowadays looks sadly empty and depleted since the two directors that have resigned after the elections have seen fit to remove all the landscaping and buildings that were in their names, with the exception of the magnificent main HQ-building but including the delicately charming Chapel.

The agenda for the meeting was the following,
1. Call to Order
2. Chairman Comments
3. Resignations
4. Call for Candidates
5. Transfer of Second Pride Avatar Account
6. Discussion of Previous Private Meeting Logs
7. Open Discussion/New Business
8. Adjourn Meeting

As should be obvious to most "the dynamite" was contained in #6, as the disgruntled faction of the board have often in statements and comments, on Facebook and various blogs, referred to what had or had not happened at the board's private meeting before the public board meeting on September 8, 2013.

The IT-Director is baffled by the actions of the irate Security Director (my interpretation)

My general observation from this meeting was that it was more than usually messy due to a certain board member and some members of the audience not being able to follow the basic rule of public meetings, i.e. to ask to speak and wait to speak until you are given the right to do so. Instead we - despite the chairs best efforts - got a lot of out-of-order disruptions with blurting out of opinions and copy/pastes filling the screen. This is of course totally unacceptable and I would earnestly suggest that the board considers future measures to warn once and then kick-out offenders who cannot obey the rules, whether they be members of the board or the audience. We need a mutually respectful tone of discussion at the meetings in spite of different opinions on the issues.

When we reached #6 on the agenda the discussion was extremely heated. Among others Mrs. Story Long made an exceptionally moving plea to the board to publish the logs. I support her sentiments and arguments wholeheartedly. Mrs. Long said, "This election and everything that's followed has created drama, not saved the community from it. There is so much distrust right now, so much drama, there needs to be transparency everywhere there can be or the community will shrink away to nothing. The community is very, very, very, unhappy. Pay attention to that. People are calling for facts. so give it to them!"

The board's final vote on the matter ended 3-2, with one abstention, against the publication of the log, which made me extremely disappointed as I can see that the vacuum arising from the non-transparency of what really occurred at that meeting will give further occasion for the disgruntled board member and the two resigned ones to create havoc for Second Pride while they go on working with their new alternative organisation "The Boystown Pride", which has miraculously produced a group and a website in a very short time. Unplanned? Coincidence? I wouldn't be so naive to believe so.

Moving on, the board further decided to send a request to the directors that had resigned requesting that they transfer the buildings that had been removed to the Second Pride avatar. There is of course no way the board can force the two resigned directors to do this, but several voices were heard that believed the two would in fact "do the right and honorable thing". We will simply have to wait and see what happens.

The board also decided to ask the membership for donations for the additional landscaping and building that needed to be done urgently fore upcoming events. I for one am going to support this cause, as I want a Second Pride sim that I can be proud of and that is a safe haven for the  various non-profit organisations we wish to offer offices on the sim.

The board finally decided to appoint Jak Calcutt as an interim building director without voting rights until such a time that a new building director could be found.

I think that is all, well as I remember it, for the complete, unbiased, fair or whatever your wish recount of the meeting please go to the Second Pride website.

If you have any objections concerning my fairness, objectivity or anything else in my reporting please send a letter, in triplicate, to President Bashar al-Assad, The Peoples Palace, Mount Kassioun, Damascus, Syria, and see if he cares because I most certainly do not.

You may now be asking yourselves, "What was the thrilling part of this meeting?" Well, that happened as Ohiomike Lockjaw, who was sitting next to me at the meeting, crashed repeatedly due to a faulty graphic card. It took him a few moments to rez every time he came back so I was thrilled to see this transformation in all its splendor.

Oh, let me just let one final bomb explode. Yesterday I received a copy of the full chat log of the private group meeting the board had on August 28, 2013. I am as yet thinking about how to use it, but stay tuned for further news on this. The group chat log was received from a source outside the board whom I consider highly trustworthy.

Among My Countrymen

This evening I went visiting in the Swedish community in SecondLife, the reason for this nowadays rare venture was that Bara Jonson and Free Balan were performing a benefit live gig for Relay For Life at my friend Apollon Allen's bar, which is located on my ex-wife Iendi Laville's sim Yadkin.

The place was packed and I thought I had never seen so many Swedish avatars in the same place for a long time, but someone said that it wasn't much busier than a regular Friday evening.

For a long time after Ars had passed away, I sought refuge among the Swedes, where I felt safe and protected, which I was extremely grateful for and needed badly at the time. They involved me in all sorts of activities to keep me from brooding. They also responded kindly to and took part in some of my crazy projects, most notably the "Nakna avatarer i SL" ("Nude Avatars in SL") blog project. I think I had well over 100 entries where the Swedes dropped their clothing and sent me their wonderful and imaginative nudie-pictures for publication. I still have many friends among them although my visits are not as frequent these days.

I danced with Jasmine most of the evening, which was a pleasure, apart from the obvious fact that we looked great dancing together.

It was a fun evening and I had a very good time seeing and talking with friends I had not been in touch with for some time. People were generous to the cause, which made it even better.

Jasmine Cazalet, I and Apmel Goosson (He is wearing a hat, could he be losing his hair?)

"There was a young man from Nantucket..."

Above, Selma Edman and Iendi Laville show some of their moves.

NE0 Timeless's search is over

Tingeling captured between someones legs