WilliamM

steven wrote 3. I see point one and two as the clouds. This final point is the silver lining on the cloud. Are there things that actually unify us? Is there anything that actually holds this community, as a community, together? I think the answer to that is decidedly yes, and is being expressed as clear as could be in this thread. People like to post about their personal lives, and read about what Basketballer is up to. People like to look at sexy photographs. People like to have a place to ask for information about escorts. People like to go to parties or forums in Palm Springs or DC and meet other people like them, and escorts. People like to say, "Happy Birthday." People like to say, "Happy Holidays." It's a plus the people here post mostly in one forum, and another -- and sometimes not at all in the political forum (not sure why -- politics is sometimes all about disagreement and strong beliefs). It may not work to post in the Lounge in January. It's up to Guy. How about a designated place behind a pay wall for political discussions?

‘La Traviata’ Opens a New Era at the Metropolitan Opera Juan Diego Flórez, left, and Diana Damrau, shown in a recent rehearsal, star in a new production of “La Traviata” at the Metropolitan Opera. CreditRamsay de Give for The New York Times Image Juan Diego Flórez, left, and Diana Damrau, shown in a recent rehearsal, star in a new production of “La Traviata” at the Metropolitan Opera. CreditCreditRamsay de Give for The New York Times By Michael Cooper Nov. 29, 2018 There have been plenty of indications that the Metropolitan Opera is under new musical management. But the debate over the projectile champagne glass was as good a sign as any. It unfolded during a recent rehearsal for a much-anticipated new production of Verdi’s “La Traviata.” When it opens on Dec. 4, this “Traviata” will be the first opera Yannick Nézet-Séguin has conducted as the Met’s new music director. The soprano Diana Damrau, playing the heroine, Violetta, had just hurled her champagne glass across the rehearsal room as she sang the defiantly joyful aria “Sempre libera.” The glass landed, midphrase, with a crash. The Met, the largest performing arts organization in the nation, has struggled with unsteady musical leadership for more than a decade. Years of health problems kept Mr. Nézet-Séguin’s predecessor, James Levine, away for long stretches, and ultimately forced him to step down as music director. Then accusations of sexual misconduct, which Mr. Levine has denied, led the Met to sever all ties with him earlier this year. The new music director has big shoes to fill, and a big wound to heal. Mr. Nézet-Séguin, who had originally been set to assume the post in 2020, moved up his start date to take a stronger musical hand at the opera house after the allegations against Mr. Levine came to light. And although it will be a few seasons before he takes on his full workload at the Met and implements some of his plans for commissions and collaborations, he is already making his presence felt. At his first “Traviata” rehearsal with the orchestra, he paused often to fine-tune passages, even though the company has performed the piece more than a thousand times. He has been helping the singers hone their roles — especially the star tenor Juan Diego Flórez, a bel canto specialist known for his high C’s, who is singing the somewhat lower and less elaborately ornamented role of Alfredo for the first time. Mr. Flórez, whose Alfredo promises nevertheless to be very much in the bel canto tradition, praised Mr. Nézet-Séguin’s understanding of voices. “He wants to bring back the attention to detail that this part has,” he said in an interview. When Mr. Nézet-Séguin urged Mr. Flórez to sing the drinking song in the first act softly, as the score indicates — to underscore that Alfredo is still insecure and sexually inexperienced — he drove the point home in a characteristically good-humored way. “Like a vir-ir-ir-ir-gin,” the Met’s new music director sang, channeling Madonna. During rehearsals Mr. Nézet-Séguin worked closely with the creative team to align the staging with the music, tweaking the blocking in one duet to help the singers and making sure the motivations of the characters were rooted in the score. “He’s a real dramaturg, musically,” Mr. Mayer said shortly before the start of the first stage rehearsal. “He’s very invested in, and interested in, the narrative information that is conveyed through music that is unrelated to the libretto.” the shock that greeted Luc Bondy’s stark “Tosca” in 2009, followed by the concern some critics expressed last season when a more traditional staging by David McVicar replaced it.) The Met’s most recent “Traviata,” a provocative, starkly contemporary look at sex, death and gender by Willy Decker, was one of its most successful reimaginings of a classic. It followed not one but two traditional, opulent productions of the opera, both by the director who more than any other has defined opulence at the Met: Franco Zeffirelli. Rat Pack “Rigoletto,” updated to 1960s Las Vegas, and Nico Muhly’s midcentury-chic new opera “Marnie” this fall. He has already been engaged to create a new “Aida.” For “La Traviata,” Mr. Mayer said, he wanted to embrace the opera’s romanticism and explore its traditional setting, mid-19th-century Paris. Like other directors have, he tells the opera as a flashback, staging the prelude as Violetta’s death scene; her deathbed remains on stage throughout. “She has a surge of life in her, right before she dies,” Mr. Mayer noted of her final moments in the last act. “And I thought: What if we could capture the swirl of this opera in that moment?” he had conducted the work at the Met before, he was bound to attract more scrutiny with it now: “You touch, completely, the core.” He added that he had not expected to begin his tenure with “La Traviata” but was pleased that it had worked out that way: It was the first opera he worked on, in 1998, as an assistant conductor and choir master at the Opéra de Montréal. “So, 20 years later, this is the first production I do as music director of the Met,” Mr. Nézet-Séguin said. “The stars aligned to make it this.”

With due respect, senior centers have evolved far beyond your description. My .mother was an occasional visitor to senior center in Massachusetts. She was aware than my brother and I lived far away, and might not know what to do in a emergency. She got to know the social worker at Senior Center. When my mom started to have memory problems in her late 70s, she mentioned the social worker. She probably lived too longer - to age 91 -- and greatly missed my dad and her 7 brothers and sisters. But, she did a wonderful job of preparing me. I consulted with the social worker frequently; she was wonderful - far more helpful than my mother's doctor. As a result I have been a strong advocate for services for seniors here in Philadelphia, especially housing counseling for people who could be targets of real estate speculators. That advocacy has resulted in significant progress. Thank goodness.

I have been following your posts, but have never posted until now. I was also a twin and served in the military. I use the term "was a twin" because by brother passed away after we were born. I have several sets of twins in my family, but the male twins (Aiden and Shaun) are still very young. Best wishes for the holidays. I shall be thinking about your wonderful family.

I greatly miss @Moondance's presence here. and in the political form. Please return soon! Also, I am very happy @marylander1940 has been a constant here. Happy December holidays to everyone.

Is there an audience....so glad to have you back, Rick!

I hired a decade or so before this site existed, so I never relied only on the reviews here, as much as I approve of this site (A+).

@tassojunior, occasionally you have to sacrifice a choice for a "better" flight. Come on, man.

@Epigonos, The escort review are not as racy now for a very good reasons, mentioned often by the administration here.