Coup d'état; A Life Sentence

I find that word fascinating, "coup d'état," and it's rather fun to say...over and over again. Or at least until you no longer find it fascinating - and then forget how to spell it because you want nothing more than to get it out of your brain.

Shostakovich's First Symphony performance tonight. I'm rather looking forward to it, I've spent a lot of time studying Shostakovich. How amazing that one can live in a culture where your work is constantly dismissed and seen as anti-government. But then again, we evolve to live in some of the worst areas plausible - we're resilient.

Britten composed something really mysterious with "The Rape of Lucretia." The libretto is saddening: Three friends sit around of which two complain about their wives being unfaithful and that no one in Rome is faithful, but the one fellow retorts that his wife has always been faithful to him. They thinks he's full of, well you know, so one of the dudes (the prince, notice how it's always royalty that turns out to be the stupid ones) goes and rapes Lucretia. Lucretia then feels that she'll never be pure again, even though her hubby tells her, "Girl, it's cool, shit happens." She kills herself, opera ends with prayer. There's suppose to be a Christian moral to this story...I just...haven't found it...

WAIT! Thank god for wikipedia!

This is the conclusion of the opera, post the death of Lucretia (of course):The Female Chorus is left in despair at the moral emptiness of this story. But the Male Chorus tells her that all pain is given meaning, and all sin redeemed, in the suffering of Christ.

Wow, lame, I feel like the religious undertone should be...a bit more substantial then that...maybe like....SINNERS WILL DIE! Or something. At least the musics worth playing.

Forcing myself to learn this competition material. Happy..hunting? I don't know, that just felt right.