| Yesterday was amazing. I got free tickets to | | | | is hard. The opera had unsurpassed music and |
| go see the final rehearsal of the opera Lucia | | | | virtuosity, but its theme was trite. No one |
| di Lammermoor at New York's Lincoln Center. | | | | falls in love and kills themselves like that. |
| Then, after my daily stay in the library's | | | | I learned more from the lowbrow musical. Its |
| basement, I went to a discussion group on | | | | all down hill from Greek plays in terms of |
| Aeschylus' ancient Greek play, the Oresteia. | | | | philosophical depth. But the musical about |
| When there I got a call and free tickets to | | | | the common man speaks to me. One could not |
| go see A Chorus Line on Broadway. Wow! | | | | say progress or declension is a theme across |
| | | | the ages of Western theater. |
| I tried hard to think of what the common | | | | |
| culturist lesson was in these three pieces. | | | | Morality was another angle I considered in my |
| They are very different from eachother. Lucia | | | | search for a culturist lesson. In the |
| di Lammermoor depicts an over-the-top | | | | Orestia, Orestes, must revenge his fathers |
| struggle of love against an arranged marriage | | | | death. But his father killed his sister so |
| and includes a famous "mad scene" before | | | | that the Trojan War would go well. In |
| bodies populate the stage. A Chorus Line | | | | avenging his father by killing his mother |
| focuses on the lives of much more believable | | | | Orestes was also trapped in a lose - lose |
| individuals who are struggling to get work in | | | | situation. A strong sense of duty motivates |
| a - you guessed it - chorus line. And the | | | | the characters. In the opera Lucia di |
| Oresteia concerns the birth of justice in a | | | | Lammermoor, characters rebel out of selfish |
| dilemma in which someone must avenge their | | | | love and the Chorus Line folk only think of |
| father's murder, but this means killing their | | | | their own passion when it comes to job |
| mother as she killed the father. Finding a | | | | choice. This could be seen as a moral |
| commonality between all of these was hard. | | | | declension. But, then again, our being able |
| | | | to do what makes sense to us is a virtue. If |
| Perhaps the culturist lesson is that the | | | | there is a commonality in all of these |
| concerns of these Western art pieces are | | | | pieces, it is people raging against their |
| increasingly petty. The Greek play, the | | | | situations and trying to live according to |
| Oresteia, concerns huge issues, fate, the | | | | truths - be they individual or duty centered. |
| death of the age of the Gods, the Birth of | | | | From a long Western perspective, the |
| justice, male versus female bases of society. | | | | individualistic passionate dancers are not |
| The opera had huge love, and the Chorus Line | | | | less representative than the murdering |
| was just about average individuals. But, | | | | Greek's or the opera's characters. |
| saying this is a progression or a declension | | | | |