It’s finally getting cold in Manchester. As I wrote previously, I’m not the most energy-efficient person in the world, thanks to my cold blood. At the moment I feel very very cold, despite the fact that I’m fairly well dressed. The problem, I should note, is that the room where I’m sitting is on the northern side of the building, hence there’s no sunlight. Does cold weather make me feel like I’m at home in winter? Positively so, especially because, as I’m told, it’s been snowing in Moscow already.
I’ll be working non-stop in the next two weeks, doing a lot of research and writing. I actually enjoy such hectic times, especially if a lot of information is coming my way, and I can learn new things. Then it’ll be the time for me to find a day to visit London. Unfortunately, it is unlikely to happen during the Atlantic Waves festival. It is definitely unlikely to happen on the 25th, when Thomas Koener, Victor Gama, Max Eastley, Asmus Tietchens, Z’Ev, David Maranha and Robert Rutman are performing at St Giles Cripplegate in Barbican. You can read more about this night of musical improvisation, on the festival’s website, or in November’s issue of The Wire (on sale now). I’m hoping, though, that either big channels, like the BBC, may feature it, OR it may appear on YouTube, providing the organisers and artists grant their permission. From what I know and read about the line-up for the night, it’s worth being recorded and transmitted.
However, whenever I go to London, I’ll have time to visit these two exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Both are dedicated to Renaissance Italy, one to the Italian household of the time, and another – to one the Titans of Renaissance, Leonardo il Magnifico, commonly known as Leonardo da Vinci. The exhibition features an aircraft model after his drawings.
The online features of At Home in Renaissance Italy include a section on music, where you may find some delightful pieces, played on the lyra di braccio, lute, harp, and harpsicord. I cannot help recommending two pieces from the mid-16th c. in which I am a specialist, Canone by Francesco da Milano (1548) and Divisions of Arcadelt’s O felici occhi miei by Diego Ortiz (1553). I had a post on The LOOK group about Renaissance music, which you may wish to check out, it contains some interesting links and an extract from a song called Dilla da l’aqua.
Another small disappointment is that the Russian TV series of Quiet Flows the Don is now complete and the first episode will be screened on November 7. They say, you can’t have it all. I cannot have Rupert Everett and the night of musical improvisation, but I can have Leonardo at home in Renaissance Italy. Quid pro quo, eh? 😉
And, of course, November 5th is coming up this weekend. I have to say, where I live, we had a very calm Halloween, with no trick-or-treaters knocking on the door. But there were fireworks, and I expect something window-breaking on the 5th. A story goes with that. Four years ago I was coming to Manchester, and across the isle on the plane sat three people who took the same flight with me from Moscow. Because the airport authorities were afraid that some rascals might try and target the planes with the fireworks, they ordered an abrupt landing. So instead of landing gradually, the aircraft literally dropped down. Immediately as the engines had stopped, one of my compatriots was on the phone to his family. Last thing I heard him saying before I left the salon, was:
‘Oh, yes, we’re OK. Yes, we’ve just fallen. No, of course, we landed, but it was like we’ve fallen down’.
Finally, one of my favourite photos by Brassai and one of my favourtie photos, in general. I adore his plan and perspective on this nocturnal shoot. Hopefully, you’ll like it, too.
Update: thanks to another Russian aficionado of Quiet Flows the Don, we’ve now got the date of release of the film on DVD. It’s 9 November, exactly one month before my birthday. The cover apparently looks like this:
And I can’t help it, I’ve got to put up this photo from the film, which has got two of the leading actors, Andrei Rudensky and Rupert Everett.
It’s the anonymous guy again! (To devoid myself of anonymity, I used to work for the Russia Journal and now work for the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as comoderate a Russia Internet discussion list.)
From what I’ve seen, most of the criticism hasn’t been the gay angle so much (though that is there — but it’s not like there aren’t any openly gay people in Russian show business), it’s more focussed toward perceived historical inaccuracies (Cossack women with loose hair); that Everett doesn’t physically look like a Don Cossack, since they tend to be blond; and that it’s viewed as a foreign prodiction coopting a Russian novel.
Komsomlskaya Pravda (yellow press, I know) has an article complaining that Everett supposedly earned 20 times more money on the project than Russian actors did. I don’t have the link but you can probably find it on their website. Russkii Newsweek had a longish article focussing in part on the gay issue IIRC. That should be online too.
Hello again!
What is it I read in your post? How could Grigory Melekhov be blond, if his father was half Turkish? I mean, he could be, of course, but it’s unlikely. Besides, I’m sure the novel says explicitly what colour of hair he had. I think those who want to complain about such *inaccuracies* would do better writing a petition to Sholokhov, instead of cursing the film. I wonder, after all, how many viewers have actually read the novel.
Hi,
I hope this link doesn’t disappear in the nearest future – http://www.yuzhno-sakhalinsk.net/object.php?pg=1&id=104380&owner=121&page=0&ndat=09112006&cd=112006&type=135
Apparently, Andrei Rudensky (who played Listnitskiy in the film and who is on the photo above with Everett) was one of the driving forces behind the movie’s comeback. He said in one of the interviews he is fluent in English and Italian, so that was very handy, I guess. :))
I thought the “Don Cossacks are blond” line of criticism was a bit mad, especially considering that the introduction of Turkish blood into the Cossack bloodline was the subject of the very first chapter of the book. (Russkii Newsweek also had a tongue-in-cheek comment on Everett’s “Semitic nose.”)
Thanks for the link!
I am actually reading the book now. I read it once before, of course, but it was a fairly long time ago. It’s nice to read it again, but the narrative is staggering.
Oh, Komsomolskaya Pravda have a “QFTD: Pro and Contra” section here: http://www.kp.ru/daily/23808.3/59904//
Thanks for the link. I read few other articles associated with it, notably the one on how the actors lived in the village. Amazing to see ‘la longue duree’ manifesting itself.
I hope you don’t mind, because I wanted to ask you this question, as there is an apparent discrepancy in the readings of the novel. What, in your opinion, is the novel about? What theme/problem would you say is the most pivotal? I know a lot of people suppose it to be about the Don Cossacks or about the Revolution and the Civil War. Personally, I think both views kind of impoverish the book, and that the angle should be more ‘societal’ and ‘humane’. I really want to know your opinion on this, so if you feel a comment form is too small for that, feel free to email me. Also, since you evidently read the novel, what works in other literatures could you compare it to?
(See, I’m exercising my interview skills, 😛 )
Actually I haven’t read the whole novel. 😉 I started it in Russian and the language was too complex for me — I found the first several chapters on the Net in English translation and read them, then ordered an Engliah-language copy, which has yet to arrive after a wait of several months.
If you want to talk about Red Cavalry, I can do that! 🙂
Well… I thought… Seriously, I want to hear what you think about the book. Another reason why I ask this, is because I am convinced that what Sholokhov had written about is still topical, still present (say, hypocrisy, ignorance, lack of respect to even those who you love, lack of thinking, etc.). But I am also interested to what other works of literature Tikhy Don can relate. There are some Rablesian glimpses, but I guess it can be compared on some occasions to the 19th c. novel. I’m thinking primarily of Thomas Hardy, although I only know ‘Tess d’Ubervilles’ by him. Then, of course, literature about the WW1, that kind of stuff. :))
Don’t you use public libraries? 😉 I’d imagine there is an English translation of the novel at the Library of Foreign Literature, on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment. It’s kind of between Kitai-Gorod and Taganskaya metro stations. I’m sure you know it anyway, they’ve got the American Centre there.
Dobryi vecher!
I’m flying back to the States for Christmas — perhaps I can arrange to get a copy of the book in English as a gift. 😉 Or pay for it. ;(
My interest in the book was actually in a way more anthropological than literary (my graduate school education was in philosophy BTW — I’m a huge fan of Joyce, Dostoevsky, and Dickens, but my background does not lie in that area). A couple of years ago I got the idea in my head of possibly writing some articles or even a book on the Cossack revival movement, and obviously Sholokov’s account of Cossack “byt” is relevant to that.
Oh, dobryi vecher, konechno zhe!
I note you mentioned Dostoyevsky. They’re apparently going mad about the guy in Russia at the mo, Ogonyok had an interview with Igor Volgin, a writer and historian, on the subject. I’m not particularly keen, however, on that they’re remaking ‘The Brothers Karamasov’ and ‘The Devils’, despite the fact that there are absolutely fantastic Soviet films made after these novels. ‘The Brothers’ was adapted by Pyriev, a truly brilliant film. With ‘The Devils’, I can’t help being biased – Andrei Rudensky had played Stavrogin, and that was a very strong performance. But even if I try to put my bias aside, it is still a very good film.