Defending the 12th century since the 14th; blogging since the 21st.

Catholicism, Conservatism, the Middle Ages, Opera, and Historical and Literary Objets d'Art blogged by a suburban dad who teaches law and writes stuff.


"Very fun." -- J. Bottum, Editor, FIRST THINGS

"Too modest" -- Elinor Dashwood

"Perhaps the wisest man on the Web" -- Henry Dieterich

"Hat tip: me (but really Cacciaguida)" -- Diana Feygin, Editor, THE YALE FREE PRESS

"You are my sire. You give me confidence to speak. You raise my heart so high that I am no more I." -- Dante

"Fabulous!"-- Warlock D.J. Prod of Didsbury

Who was Cacciaguida? See Dante's PARADISO, Cantos XV, XVI, & XVII.


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The American Library Association and "challenged" books

Eve posts here on this perennial media favorite, and makes the never-to-be-sufficiently-stressed point that any library that stocks fewer than 100% of the titles that exist -- which is to say, all libraries, with the possible exception of the L. of Congress -- have to make choices. Are all choices acts of "banning" from the standpoint of the books not chosen?

Another point that seems never to be made in the ALA's preening reports is that it makes a great deal of difference what library we're talking about. Public? High school? Elementary? And are we talking about a library or a classroom? If a classroom, are we talking about bookshelf, or a required reading list? All these details matter.

Some of the titles reported by the ALA to have been "challenged" (a handy substitute for "banned," since even an inquiring phone call might qualify as a "challenge") are ones that, IMHO, high-schoolers should be required to read, because they are essential for forming a sound worldview: I refer to Huxley's Brave New World and Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.

Yet even here, age-appropriateness is a legitimate consideration. I'm not sure I'd want those two books in a middle school classroom, and I'm sure I would not want them in an elementary school classroom. I guess that means I want to "ban" them, huh?
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:20 PM

 
Sorry for the light blogging recently. I've been teaching my classes, and also preparing for a trip to Rome, October 3-9.

Meanwhile, how about an opera review?

WALKURE in Virginia

The Virginia Opera, which performs in Norfolk, Richmond, and Fairfax, has undertaken Wagner's Die Walkure, the second (and most popular) opera of the four-opera Ring of the Nibelung epic. I got to see a dress rehearsal. (BTW, if any of you feel you have seen this review somewhere before, trust me, there are no plagiarism issues here. At any rate, if this blog and that website have any common readership, I'd love to know about it.)

The stage picture in this production is stylized-representational. There is a real hearth and real mountain passes, but suggested by edgy, angular pieces and flats, not unlike Lee Simonson's sets in the Met's 1950s production. Color is used vividly throughout.

If the production has a theme, it might be "girl power." When the curtain rises on Act II, all nine valkyries are on stage, engaged in spear-drill, even shouting an interpolated choral "hei" while executing one particular move. I liked it.

At the end of Act III, the eight remaining valkyries return to mount a kind of honor guard around Brunnhilde, apparently outside the fire perimeter, which is narrow. Can't say I liked this bit: it made me wonder whether Siegfried would find all these extra "aunts" still standing there when he arrives, some seventeen-odd years later.

With director Lillian Groag, you can be sure of two things:

1. Additional flats will descend from the fly-space to indicate changes of mood. E.g., leathery, shield-like panels decorated with interlocking rings descended during the Fricka scene, signifying Wotan's trapped-ness. The sudden arrival of spring in Act I was signaled with the splitting apart of the rafters that represent Hunding's roof, revealing a newly-descended moon.

2. Additional non-singing characters will be added. In Groag's ELEKTRA with this company last spring, this was the "Ghost of Iphigenia." Fell utterly flat with me, though the production was otherwise excellent. In WALKURE, the new extras were two henchmen of Hunding's (Chereau did this too). In Act II Siegmund has to fight all three of them, and has to do some Jedi maneuvers in order to last until Brunnhilde intervenes.

Yet the fight was very well staged. Siegmund got off a kick to Hunding's jaw even as he received the lethal blow. The heart-tug moment of Siegmund recognizing "Walse" just before death appears now to be standard (I first saw it in Chereau; does anybody know if it was done before him?), and is done here too.

Flying valkyries -- with the ropes much too visible, at least from Box 4 -- grace the opening of Act III.

The Wotan-Brunnhilde dialogue in that act takes place somewhat claustrophobically against a downstage black curtain, but only because the fire-effects are being prepared behind that curtain, which parts in "response" to Wotan's summoning Loge. Metallic "tongues" of "flame" also emerge and embrace Brunnhilde.

Wotan's narrative in Act II is massively cut.

Vocally, we were treated to Jeannine Altmeyer returning as Sieglinde. She is of course an old pro, and not too far from the vocal excellence she showed at Bayreuth in the 70s and at the Met in the 80s.

Our Brunnhilde was Susan Marie Pierson: good high range, but a distinctly smaller voice than Altmeyer's. She had power left over for Act III, but she only marked the Ho-Jo-To-Ho's in Act II.

The most impressive voice was that of Thomas Rolf Truhitte, our Siegmund: a massive tenore-baritonale sound that almost brings the M-word to one's lips, in a body that suggests California surfer-dude. Apparently that thick hair is all his, since he still had it one when he took a seat in the audience to watch Act III. (After Act III he appeared on stage with Altmeyer and Pierson, and called out to the rehearsal-audience: "Y'all come back now!")

Marc Embree's Wotan: good news and bad news. The good news is that he sounds better now than he did last spring, when his Orest showed a distinct wobble.

The bad news -- and it may well the production, not Embree himself -- is that he showed absolutely no dignity in the role. (Is this part of the "girl power" thing?) He lurched painfully from one pose to another, in a costume that made him look like a samurai gone to seed. He never once stood up throughout the Fricka scene; he went from seated to slumping as our truly bad-ass Fricka -- Tracie Luck, stepping in for Barbard Dever, and displaying a Bumbry head voice with a Horne chest voice -- worked him over.

Charles Robert Austin showed great bass sound and impressive stage presence as Hunding. The valkyries (with Miss Luck rejoining them as Grimgerde) showed many excellent voices. But why did the costumer given them all, including Brunnhilde, "scissorhand" armor over their left hands?

In the pit, Peter Mark, beating very clearly, led a fast-paced but dramatically effective reading. It's not easy drawing a professional WALKURE from musicians not yet in the major leagues (and in numbers well below Wagner's requests -- approx. half-strength -- the orchestra pits at the Va. Opera's theatres just can't hold more than that).

Some of the words of instruction and encouragement that Maestro Mark shouted as the rehearsal went on (e.g., to the horns in Act I, in their exposed passage when Sieglinde offers Siegmund the cup of mead: "As loud as you need to keep it steady!") showed that we've still got embouchure issues down here. (Assistant conductors gave the horn section from drill-instruction during both intermissions.) But hey, orchestras have been struggling with Wagner for as long as there's been Wagner; not every orchestra is the Met, Bayreuth, or the Vienna Phil.

The Virginia Opera forces are doing very well with WALKURE, considering the limitations they face, including theaters that cannot accommodate Met-style special effects. Maestro Mark and his team should feel encouraged to keep exploring repertory that tests their resources.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:55 PM

 
T. S. Eliot

Marxist (so they say) literary critic Terry Eagleton has an excellent essay on Eliot (actually a review of a new book about the literary magazine Eliot edited, The Criterion) here. I have numerous minor quibbles with this piece, but I recommend it for its main point: Eagleton's clear distinction between traditionalism and fascism, and his solid placement of Eliot on the traditionalist side of that divide.
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:31 PM

 
Henry James

How disappointing to learn that Eve doesn't like Henry James. I'm in the middle of The Bostonians right now, and it's a hoot.

Already on board:

The American: The new-world-meets-old-world theme is too obvious, but an interesting portrait of old-world aristocrats intent on some serious aristocratting.

The Portrait of a Lady: Great if you're interested in rich, bored Anglo-American expatriates using England and Italy as residential theme-parks; otherwise, I admit, a bit tedious. Yet Harold Bloom thought it worth singling out in one of his books. And the old Duchess is a great character -- not Mme. Merle; I mean Gilbert's sister.

Now I wonder, why would someone like me groove on novels by some middle-aged guy who uses circumlocution and sarcasm to score points against types of people he happens not to like?

Oh.


posted by Cacciaguida at 11:08 AM

 
A reader writes in:

I found your website, and I haven't read that much, but I noticed in it that you praised Bishope Loverde. We just found out recently that he supported legislation allowing gay marriages and adoptions when he was in CT. He also removed a good priest, Fr. James Healy, b/c Fr. Healy told the bishop about Fr. Daniel Hamilton's ( the pastor at our church in Fredericksburg VA) extensive gay pornography collection. Fr. HAmilton lied at the time about it.
Just thought I'd let you know.....

Well, knowledge is good, I guess -- but how much do you or I really know? Going on what I've read in the Washington Post, what I saw first hand in my days at All Saints Parish in Manassas, and my recollections of bygone days in Connecticut, here are my thoughts.

1. Re the Connecticut gay rights bill: Show me evidence that it was then-Auxiliary Bishop Loverde himself, and not Archbishop Daniel Cronin, or arch-lib Auxiliary Bishop Peter Rosazza, or the Connecticut Bishops' Conference, who supported the bill. Then, show me the text of the bill (or I'll look it up). Then we can figure out who supported what. In the meantime, Bishop Loverde still has a book of free passes from me, because he has kept intact the essential policies of Bishop Keating, including support for Christendom College, and keeping the kibosh on altar girls.

2. I knew Father Haley (not Healy) in my All Saints days. There were some grounds for considering him, as you say, a "good priest." On the whole, however, I cannot say that I would rank him among my All-Time Top Ten in the credibility department. I remember him mainly for a homily about how he had been victimized for wearing his clericals in public (bravo for wearing them, of course, but it's just weird to tell such a self-glorifying story in a homily), and for refusing to hear the confession of one of my sons. (In fairness, if he is himself struggling with The Temptation, then declining to hear a boy's confession outside of regular confession hours might be both prudent and heroic.)

More recently I've read about Fr. Haley's extensive accusations in the Post. His charges about Verrecchia's affair proved true, but none of his accusations against Father Hamilton re gay pornography have been substantiated as yet (have they? They had not been as of the last time the Post covered the story: neither the Diocese nor Fr. Hamilton have admitted the porn accusations, though there was some wishy-washy language from the diocesan spokeswhatever about "past failings"). Fr. Haley has made similar gay-porn accusations against other pastors he has served with, and these have not been substantiated either: the peculation charges against Fr. Erbacher have been substantiated, but not the porn charges. Something's fishy here.

I have an unpleasant feeling that when the dirty laundry of certain other dioceses finally gets aired, it'll be much more than a Metro section story. You are very blessed to live in the Diocese of Arlington. It's all too easy to take it for granted.

And, of course, let's pray for priests and bishops.

posted by Cacciaguida at 8:38 PM

 
Seen on a poster-ad for a regional opera company: "None of our sopranos are named Tony."
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:57 PM

 
Growing churches

More proof that you don't need The New York Times: only about a quarter century after the rest of us noticed it, the paper of record has finally noticed that "conservative" churches are growing faster than "liberal" or even -- gasp -- "moderate" ones. Click here (requires registration, which is free, but probably not worth it).

I doubt this will change the Times's position that the Catholic Church had better get rid of all its "conservative" doctrines or else it'll lose members.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:57 AM

 
Kross&Sweord has some poetry to wake you up.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:38 AM

 
Conversation chez Cacciaguida

MRS. CACCIAGUIDA: [Gets up from dinner table and gives Cacciaguida a kiss.]
SON OF CACCIAGUIDA: Have you been talking to Mrs. [insert here family name of worst husband you know] again?
MRS. CACCIAGUIDA: I don't have to talk to Mrs. [repeat name from previous line] to appreciate your father.
CACCIAGUIDA: Actually, I read something today that would make you appreciate even [insert here first name of worst husband you know].
MRS. CACCIAGUIDA: What was that?
CACCIAGUIDA: It was on Eve's blog. Go there and scroll down to "Donna."
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:33 AM

 
An appropriate 9/11 anniversary reflection is to be found here.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:29 AM

 
Arab Christians Rule, el-Dudeh!

Since Islam tends to come in for a fair amount of criticism on this blog -- Cacciaguida did, after all, ride forth with Emperor Conrad to liberate the Holy Land -- I thought I'd mention today that the category "Muslim" (or "Moslem," or "Saracen," or "paynim") is by no means to be equated with the category "Arab." This is partly because of the many non-Arab Muslims (e.g the Iranians; Richard Reid) but also because there are many Arab Christians.

I was motivated to blog this because I attended Mass on my campus today, and met a Catholic first-year student who, when ad lib prayers of the faithful were called for (I know, I'm not a fan of this practice either, but today it worked out well), said good and loud: "For the conversion of the Muslims, let us pray to the Lord." And pray we did.

Well, obviously, a friendship was born. As we chatted after Mass, he said that in his home town, the local Catholics -- who were apparently a bit on peacey-weacey side -- experienced grave ideological confusion when some Arab Catholics from Bethlehem moved into town. All this stuff about Islam being a religion of peace, and "people of the book" being "protected," sounded pretty alien to them, given their experiences. Under Israeli rule, peace-loving Palestinian Christians ran Bethlehem (click here and scroll down a bit for an official American tribute to the late Mayor of Bethlehem, Elias Freij, a Palestinian Christian), and things were fine. Now the PA is there -- and, well, these particular folks saw fit to move to America. Bethlehem's loss is our gain.

Web resources on Arab Christians: Start with the Catholic Near East Welfare Association. Check out this report on the situation in Kuwait, from Aid to the Church in Need.

From among the non-Catholic Christian-Arab sources Google fetched, this article is interesting. I think the author is Anglican (at any rate, both "Greek Orthodox" and "Roman Catholics" come in for some minor blame). This Evangelical site has some useful information.

Snakes-in-the-grass alert: In a Google search for the Holy Land Franciscans, one harmless-looking page turned out to hosted by an outfit called "Christusrex" -- whose own home page had links to Holocaust-deniers, Talmud-exposers, etc. (BTW, I have no idea what the Talmud says about Christ, but something tells me I don't want to take these guys as my teachers on this.) For the wonderful Holy Land Franciscans who run the monastery in Washington D.C., go here.

Click here for information on the Maronites, i.e. the indigenous Catholics of Lebanon. These folks have been virtually expelled from their homeland by Syrian-dominated Moslem elements. (And while we're at it, shame on soon-to-be-ex-Senator Bob Smith for making a campaign issue out of primary opponent John Sununu Jr. being Lebanese, as today's WSJ editorial page says he did.) Many Maronites have moved the the U.S., and I'll say it again, mutatis mutandis: Lebanon's loss is our gain.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:14 PM

 
Bush's Statue of Liberty Speech

First, it's great to have a real President again. No, W wasn't my first choice back in the spring of 2000 either, and if I wanted to I could come up with a list of Bush II Administration decisions that I don't agree with. But right now I don't want to, and that's my point. One wants to -- and one can -- have confidence in this man's instincts and decency. (Was this what "liking Ike" was all about?)

Anyway, the speech. Under a Straussian analysis, most of it was grounded in that Christian-Enlightenment synthesis that we call the American Founding; yet it was a religious speech, even a Christian one. The theological references began about at mid-point ("children who will never know their fathers in this life..."), and came faster and thicker as the speech went on. On the surface, the President maintained his standard line that our problem is not with Muslims, only with the bad ones. Yet to denounce terrorists for "defiling" Islam is to assert that Islam has been (and therefore, may at present be) a defiled thing.

The speech then concluded with a direct quotation from John 1:5, a text that declares the doctrine of the Incarnation, the Christian doctrine that Muslims find most offensive, because their god would never so abase himself as to share human nature.

Thank you, Mr. President.


posted by Cacciaguida at 9:29 PM

 
The Oh Really? Factor

I had scarcely finished reading about Bill O'Reilly's shilling for the Saudis (see Bill McGurn's op-ed in the Sept. 9 WSJ, or click here) when the Sept. 8-14 National Catholic Register arrived, with the first item in its "In Brief" column proclaiming: "O'Reilly Backs Homosexuality."

The whole text (since it's not on the Register's website yet):

Fox News talk-show host Bill O'Reilly, who has drawn criticism from many Catholics for his harsh attacks on the Vatican's handling of sex abuse by U.S. clergy, has told the homosexual magazine The Advocate that he supports same-sex "marriage" and allowing homosexuals to adopt. 0'Reilly, who is Catholic, said that the only criticism of his pro-homosexual position comes "from very, very religious-driven people," whom he dismissed as "fanatic" and "holy rollers."

Click here for O'Reilly's Advocate interview (but beware of the pop-up ads that will follow). The Advocate seems skeptical as to whether it has really made a convert here, but hey -- we report, you decide.

I'm not asserting any connection between these two new enthusiasms of Mr. O'Reilly -- Saudim and Gomorrah -- other than that I happened to find out about them within five minutes of each other, on a day when I had not otherwise been troubled by thoughts of Mr. O'Reilly.

By the way, should I have called this post "The Boys in the Bandar"?

posted by Cacciaguida at 1:10 PM

 
Comes now the "Autumn 2000 issue" of The Law School Magazine, from NYU Law School -- actually a promotional publication, like the hundreds of others that line law-profs' mailboxes every fall, but done up to look like a high-end monthly, and, I must say, more interesting than most such mailings.

Included, as per custom, is news on new faculty hires. For NYU this includes Assistant Professor Rebecca Tushnet, alumna of Harvard, Yale Law School, a Souter clerkship, Debevoise & Plimpton, and the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, and related by blood to the royal house of Blogistan. Congratulations, I think.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:04 AM

 
Bishops and stuff

Bishop Sean O'Malley of Fall River, MA, has been appointed Bishop of Palm Beach, FL. This lateral move is surely related to his crisis management skills (see story here). Palm Beach holds the distinction of being the only diocese to have lost not one but two bishops to sex-scandal revelations. (Please pray for former Bishops O'Connell and Symons.)

Bishop O'Malley was reportedly on the short list when the see of New York was vacant about two years ago, so clearly he is well-regarded. This appointment is good news.

Meanwhile, in Fredericksburg, VA, Father David Hamilton has resigned as pastor of St. Mary's parish. Something in this story is not good news, especially as Fr. Hamilton only took over last June.

Let's pray for Bishop O'Malley as he confronts central Florida's mess, and for Bishop Loverde as he deals with whatever needs dealing with in Fredericksburg. And many thanks to Bishop Loverded for his recent visit to Christendom College.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:51 PM

 
As I attempted to cast my second vote for "the mighty T-Rex" on E-Pression, the dangfool software told me I'd already voted! Like I should just KNOW we're still on the first ballot! Sheesh!
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:57 PM

 
Beaned in Boston

Was in Boston last week for the annual conference of the American Political Science Association. It's a great venue to hear some good panels, get some good books at discounts, and, above all, to see friends such as (NAME-DROPPING ALERT -- CODE RED!!) Hadley Arkes, Walter Berns, Leon Craig, David Forte, Robby George, Ken Masugi, Mitch Muncy, Tom Pangle, Paul and Laura Rahe, Dennis Teti, Mike Uhlmann, David Wagner, Tom West, and Christopher Wolfe.

This was actually the first time I'd had a chance to get to know Boston. I'd been driven around by friends before, and of course I've been to Cambridge once or twice to cheer on the Cantab-crushing Team and then trash Harvard Yard. But this was my first opportunity to get around Boston on foot, which is the only we to get to know a city.

The convention itself was at Copley Square. My hotel was a few blocks to the east, near the Boston Common, so in walking to and from the convention I got to know Boylston Ave., St. James Ave., and Commonwealth Ave., with its wealth of old-fashioned public statuary.

Last Friday evening a group of us walked over to Faneuil Hall, taking in Beacon Hill along the way. We had dinner at Durgin Park, the true Boston-Yankee place, where I had clam chowder made with bacon stock and thickened with clams instead of flour, small baked beans with a thin but sweet molasses sauce, lobster to die for, and Indian pudding. (Now I'm back home and my copperhead wife demands that I undergo emergency de-Yankification.) (Uh, dear, a "copperhead" is a northerner who likes the South. Honest.)

Also on the Durgin Park menu was their famous Boston scrod, which prompted one of our party to tell the following joke:

This guy gets into a cab in Boston and says, "Where can I get scrod?"

So the cabbie says, "Ya know, I get that question a lot, but that's the first time I've ever heard it in the subjunctive pluperfect."
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:34 PM