Obituary: Peter Maxwell Davies (1935-2016)

The former Master of the Queen's Music was 81.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Composer Peter Maxwell Davies. Photo © Stephen Lock.

Sir Peter Maxwell-Davies, the groundbreaking British composer known for bold symphonies and iconoclastic operas died yesterday at his home on the island of Sanday in the Orkney Isles. His death was reported by the BBC.  The composer was 81. He had been suffering from leukemia in recent years.

Keep Calm and Blog On

On Shutdowns, Closures, Crises and Coping: 
Some words from the Superconductor editorial desk.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Just do what the sign says. Photoshop by the author.

It's been a tumultuous week for the classical music business. The New York City Opera shut its doors after seventy years of operations. The opening night of Carnegie Hall (with the Philadelphia Orchestra and violinist Joshua Bell) was kyboshed by an 11th hour strike by the stagehands' Local One. Finally, the Minnesota Orchestra continuing its year-long self-asphyxiation by lockout. The latest blow: the resignation of Osmo Vänskä from the post of Music Director following the Orchestra's withdrawal from its planned November concerts at Carnegie Hall.

Opera Review: There's a Riot Goin' On

Downtown Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble occupies Carmen.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A fresh approach to bullfighting at Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble's "occupied" Carmen.
Photo amalgamation by the author, who does not endorse bullfighting or pepper spray.

George Bizet's Carmen is often mounted as grand opera, with crowds of milling orange sellers, bandallerias and marching children creating a whirlwind portrait of life in 19th century Seville. This new production by Christopher Fecteau's Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble (part of the company's summer repertory project) takes the opposite approach.

Using the confines of the black-box 13th St. Theater to maximum advantage, director Knud Adams added elements all too familiar to New Yorkers conversant with the Occupy Wall Street protests. Citizens were repeatedly "kettled" and threatened with pepper spray.  Don José (Adam Juran) was a riot control cop with safety vest and ready baton. Carmen (Elizabeth Shoup) was a lithesome leather-jacketed presence with an attitude to match, surrounded by an admiring throng of police, punks and riot grrls.

Dell'Arte's summer Standard Repertoire Project is geared toward helping younger singers move from the conservatory environment into the professional world. This was Ms. Shoup's debut in the complex title role, and she brought a dry, matter-of-fact edge to this familiar character. Although her singing was strongest in the two famous arias in Act I, she compensated with go-to-hell attitude and a refreshing lack of the standard clichés associated with this famous character.

Opera Review: Mozart, Occupied

New York Opera Exchange opens a Così on Wall St.
by Paul Pelkonen

Mozart: 18th century anarchist.
Photoshopped by the author.

The New York Opera Exchange is the latest example of a recent surge of small community opera companies that provide a venue for young conservatory singers on the way up. On Sunday evening at the Church of the Covenant, the NYOX offered the fourth and final performance of its first full opera production: Mozart's Così fan tutte.

Director Cameron Marcotte presented a reworked and updated version of this comedy, moving the action to Wall Street, specifically in the year 2011 as the canyons of lower Manhattan echoed with the clatter of percussion and the crunch of police batons. Here, the whole cast become employees of Don Alfonso, whose cynical nature fits his new role as a Wall Street CEO.

In Mr. Marcotte's update. Ferrando (Jeffery Taveras) and Gugliemo (Joseph Beckwith) are would-be masters of the universe, junior analysts at Don Alfonso's corporation. The Don (Jason Cox) sexually harasses Despina and thinks that all of his employees are idiots.

He might be right.

One Louder: 2011 The Year in Reviews

We look back at 2011, the year that turned it up.

Like Nigel Tufnel's amplifier, this was a year that went over the edge.
Image from This is Spinal Tap © 1984 Embassy Pictures.

We're at the end of another year here at Superconductor. There were a total of 467 posts (or an approximate average of one and a half articles a day.) Not bad when your ambition is to write publish and edit a daily blog. More are coming.

There were also posts that had little to do with reality: a privilege of being one's own editor.

• Dragons being paid (in English gold coins) to live on top of the Metropolitan Opera House and sing in Siegfried.
• The New York City Opera's plan to move to a Brooklyn water treatment plant. 
• A Live-at-Occupy-Wall-Street performance of Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat. (That one actually happened.)

So we're going to use this opportunity to look back (mostly fondly) at a very busy year. It started a New Year's Day review of Palestrina, and will (eventually) include this week's forthcoming reviews in the grand total.

The guide is in five (formerly four) sections:

Opera Reviews:

I went to the opera 70 times, if you count a few live telecasts and broadcasts. Includes Strauss, Rossini, but surprisingly, no Wagner. Eleven reviews of great performances from different companies, with honorable mentions at the end.

Opera Singers:
When you see almost six dozen operas, you're bound to catch some good performances. We break down the 11 best, in all vocal shapes, sizes and styles.

Concerts and Recitals: 

Attended 95 of these this year. A recount of the eleven best experiences to be had sitting in a concert hall and not fidgeting. Features piano recitals and orchestral concerts in four different cities.

Recordings and DVDs:

The recording industry is not dead. It's just changing shape, with the best opera recordings coming out on home video long before they're released on CD, and whole symphony boxed sets repackaged as dime-store downloads.

The Worst of 2011: 

Our chamber of horrors. This year, instead of rehashing lousy performances, this section focuses on backstage drama and news coverage of a very strange year. Includes tales of injured conductors, on- and offstage drama, and the journey into the infinite undertaken by the New York City Opera. Plus singers falling off of stage sets.

The end of the guitar room scene. 

Footage, dialogue from This is Spinal Tap © 1984 Embassy Pictures.

Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
NT: Exactly.
MDB: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
NT: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
MDB: I don't know.
NT: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
MDB: Put it up to eleven.
NT: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
MDB: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
NT: [pause] These go to eleven.

A Nightmare of New York (Zuccotti Park)

A Christmas ditty for troubled times.

The ghosts of a New York Christmas yet to come.

December 17th marks the one-month milestone since the raid on Zuccotti Park, when Mayor Mike Bloomberg and New York Police Chief Ray Kelly sent heavily armed and armored NYPD to evict the protestors from the park at the corner of Liberty St. and Broadway.

I was not there that night, but I was a contributor to the Occupation and a donor to the People's Library. One month later, I'm still outraged at the NYPD's continued violence against the people of this city and especially its members of the working press. So here's a Christmas present to the Commish, Hizzonner, and all the boys in blue who raided the park.

(Ed. note: I wrote this yesterday and thought twice about posting it. But given that the police are arresting former clergy at Duarte Square today--and that a cop just punched a credentialed photographer in the kidneys (twice) it's running now.)

A Nightmare of New York (Zuccotti Park)
A song parody by Paul J. Pelkonen
Sung to the tune of "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues. Original song written by and © S. McGowan/J. Finer. Sheet music available for purchase and download here.

It was on the Seventeenth, in Zuccotti Park,
They came at one A.M., to catch us sleeping.
They came with sound cannons. Gave us no place to run.
Within just two hours, New York was weeping.

The Mayor sent them there, into a public square,
Two months of street protests, had made him nervous.
Bloomberg's private army, Came in to make us bleed,
For our right to protest, did we deserve this?

All the tables they smashed all the beds that were trashed,
The People's Library books ripped up and torn,
The tents they were slashed up, our stuff it was mashed up,
To the sound of a garbage truck's primitive roar.

They beat on reporters, they shut out all others,
They cleared the air space and kept the choppers down,
They came in like cowards, they crushed us like flowers,
It was a black mark for fair Manhattan town.

And the boys of the NYPD choir were armed with pepper spray,
And we shall ne'er forget their deeds that day.

You're a bum,

You're a punk,

And Ray Kelly's a skunk,
You stink of corruption and corporate graft.
Go sleep in Zuccotti,
with your corporate hottie,
with your own private army
you just make me laugh.

And the boys of the NYPD choir were using pepper spray,
And we shall ne'er forget their deeds that day.

You took our homes from us,
You took our jobs from us,
And what coins that were left,
Were pinched and swindled
You went and ruined our books
You claimed for our own good,
But we will rise again,
The sparks are kindled.

And the boys of the NYPD choir still using pepper spray,
And we shall ne'er forgive their deeds that day.

Occupy Wall Street to "Mic Check" Lincoln Center

General Assembly planned for Josie Robertson Plaza

Occupy Wall Street poster by Lalo Alcarez.
© 2011 by the artist.

Concert, opera, theater, ballet and circus-goers attending a performance at Lincoln Center tonight might want to give themselves extra time on their commute to and from the venues. That, or use the underground tunnels.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is coming to Lincoln Center Plaza. 

The group, which protests economic inequality, has targeted the arts complex in a post on their website, as the site of a General Assembly, the peaceful (but loud) nightly meeting where members of the movement are given the opportunity to speak, amplified by the "people's mic": a repetition of their statement by the assembled crowd.

Tonight's G.A. is planned to take place in conjunction with the Metropolitan Opera's last 2011 performance of Satyagraha, the Philip Glass opera that explores the life of Mohandis K. Gandhi. The Mahatma's non-violent methods are an inspiration to the Occupy Movement.

Mr. Glass is planning to join the General Assembly and speak to the occupiers. Presumably, he will come out after Satyagraha ends, which should be about 11:15.

The choice of venue is also calculated to annoy New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Mayor Bloomberg, one of the 12 richest men in America, is among the major donors to Lincoln Center.

In November, Mayor Bloomberg personally authorized the NYPD to "evict" the Occupiers' two month old encampment at Zuccotti Park. The action led to citizens, journalists and even a city council member being injured and jailed by the cops. But the clean-out has freed the movement to travel the city and spread ther message.

Another target is  billionaire David H. Koch, the right-wing backer of the Tea Party movement. Mr. Koch recently slapped his name across the former New York State Theater after making a hefty donation to the coffers of the arts center.

If they're blocked from the plaza (as they probably will be, most likely by a combination of Lincoln Center security and NYPD) the Occupiers are planning to stage a hunger strike. According to their website, the strike will continue until they are once more allowed to stage protests in the city's public and privately owned plazas and parks.

Bloomberg vs. Beethoven

An Open Letter to the Mayor of New York City.

New York's third-term mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

"He, too, then, is nothing better than an ordinary man! Now he will trample on all human rights only to humor his ambition; he will place himself above all others,--become a tyrant!"
--Ludwig van Beethoven.

The Honorable Michael R. Bloomberg
Mayor of the City Of New York
City Hall (260 Broadway)
New York, NY 10007

Dear Mr. Mayor:
Today, you declared Nov. 20, 2011 to be "Beethoven Day" in the City of New York. But by your recent actions, Mayor Bloomberg, you have shown yourself to be totally ignorant of the composer in question.

Ludwig van Beethoven was a fiercely independent artist who fought against tyranny. He broke the European system of patronage and "court" composers, eking out a difficult life as a freelance musician. A fierce republican, he famously reacted to Napoleon assuming the title of Emperor by striking the name "Bonaparte" from his symphony No. 3. The work is now known as the Eroica.

Under normal circumstances, "Beethoven Day" would be a great idea. WQXR's clever "Obey Beethoven" campaign has the composer's scowling mug all over the city. Recent performances by the New York Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique have brought the composer's genius to the city's concert halls. And today WQXR has achieved something historic, an all-day marathon of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas, played live.

But right now, things in our city are a long way from normal.

Less than one week ago, Mr. Mayor, you ordered a small army of riot police to "clean out" Zuccotti Park, the two-month home base of Occupy Wall Street. Protestors in the park were warned that they had less than one hour to remove all of their property from the Park before the police went in. And we know you ordered it. You went on the air and claimed responsibility for the actions of the police.

The poster for WQXR's "Obey Beethoven" campaign.
© 2011 WQXR/National Public Radio.

When the NYPD went in, they swung nightsticks, slashed nylon tents with razor blades, and attacked protestors. The media was walled out, with fire trucks blocking cameras and reporters from all three papers either arrested, attacked, or kept from covering the actions of the police. City councilman Ydanis Rodriguez was injured and arrested, and incarcerated for almost 24 hours. He identified himself as a city official, and was not allowed to talk to a lawyer.

The worst crime perpetrated against the protest was the partial destruction of the People's Library, a 5000+ volume collection of novels, philosophy, textbooks and even a bound copy of the Torah. The cops dumped these neatly stored books into Department of Sanitation garbage trucks. The trash compactors were activated. Over 2000 volumes were crushed into garbage, destroyed beyond repair. Some have been recovered, but many are badly damaged.

Beethoven's lone opera, Fidelio is another triumph over tyranny. Written in 1804 and revised in 1815, Fidelio is a "rescue" opera: the story of a wrongfully imprisoned nobleman, locked in a deep dungeon by a corrupt prison governor. The prisoner's wife, Leonore, cross-dresses and goes undercover as "Fidelio", an assistant turnkey at the prison. Eventually, her husband is freed and evil is defeated.

Mayor Bloomberg, you have arrested and charged over 1,000 people in your city in connection to the Occupy movement. You have allowed police to use "kettling", pepper spray, night-sticks and L-Rad sound cannons on your citizens. You ordered the large-scale destruction of books and personal property. Despite owning a media company, your police have prohibited journalists from doing their jobs and exercising their Constitutional right to free speech. And you have even had your own politicians, like Mr. Rodriguez, injured and imprisoned, denying them their right to speak to an attorney as guaranteed by Miranda v. Arizona.

Beethoven once said: "What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven." As one of those princes, you are not worthy of him.

Sincerely,

Paul J. Pelkonen
Editor, Superconductor.
Brooklyn, NY

"Machine" Set to Occupy Zuccotti Park

Multi-million-dollar stage equipment comes to lower Manhattan.

The Metropolitan Opera and the Mayor's office have come up with a plan to cut the costs of the company's troubled production of Wagner's Ring. At the same time, the city will solve the problems posed by Occupy Wall Street, the two-month-old protest movement in Zuccotti Park.

The City has arranged to borrow the "Machine" set, which has been used (up until now) for the Ring. The 45-ton set, which has been in storage at the Metropolitan Opera House since the last run of Siegfried, will be transported to lower Manhattan and set up at Zuccotti Park for eight weeks.

Designed by director Robert Lepage, the "Machine" is a sophisticated device, consisting of two dozen mechanical planks that spin around a central axis by computer control.  During the operas, the planks are repeatedly reconfigured to create a projection surface for computer graphics, meant to represent the rivers, mountains, and castles of Wagner's mythological dramas. 

In its new role, the huge 45-ton contraption will be set up in Zuccotti Park, the private recreational space owned by Brookfield Properties. Its mechanical planks will be set to "spin" mode, and used to literally and permanently sweep the park clear of protestors, pedestrians, and other undesirable types.

Starting on November 31, the city will embark on its Phase II plans for the park. This includes the opening of Zukotay!, a holiday-themed entertainment set on the site of the former Occupy Wall Street encampment. With help from a 12k Lumen Projector mounted on the nearby Joie de Vivre sculpture, the Machine will be used to project falling snow, magnificent mountain vistas and even the festive visual of a burning Yule log. 

"We plan to make this a family-friendly entertainment vector where there used to be homelessness and drumming." said Cirque du Poivre representative Alvin Tamias. "Passers-by and hard-working Wall Street professionals will be able to enjoy the show before being suddenly whacked in the head with a large plank."

The contraption will remain in round-the-clock operation at Zuccotti Park through the Christmas shopping season until Jan. 18. Then it will be returned to the Met to begin rehearsals for Götterdämmerung, the final chapter of Wagner's Ring opening on Jan. 27. Addressing concerns from local residents about the noise made by continually spinning planks, Mr. Tamias said: "We've been assured that the Machine's operation is whisper-quiet."

Deputy police commissioner Michael J. Czech claimed that this is a breakthrough in law enforcement. "Forget the L-Rad Sound Cannon," Mr. Czech crowed to the press. "This is the future of law enforcement--huge permanent technological structures that can keep a plaza free of protestors or occupiers with minimal expenditure on manpower and per diem, the expense of sending flak jackets to the dry cleaners."

Opera Review: An Imitation of Life

Kommilitonen! has its U.S. premiere at Juilliard.

Party all the time: the Communist officials from Act II of Kommilitonen!

Photo provided by the Juilliard School. © 2010 Blind Summit Theatre.

Kommilitonen!, the eighth opera from British composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, is an uncompromising look at the effects of student protests and oppression in the 20th century. But no one could have predicted the political circumstance surrounding its premiere in New York City on Wednesday night.

The premiere happened one day after the New York Police Department, acting under orders from Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided to "evict" the Occupy Wall Street protestors from Zuccotti Park. The action resulted in 200 arrests, journalists being beaten, and the destruction of the protestors' property, including books, laptop computers and musical instruments. Sometimes, art imitates life.

David Pountney's libretto ties three historical incidents together:

• 1943: the White Rose resistance in Hitler's Germany and the executions of activists Joseph and Sophie Scholl. Their student newsletter gives the opera its title.


• 1962: the race riots that accompanied the enrollment of James Meredith, the first African-American to attend the University of Mississippi.


• 1966: the murder of teachers and ultra-violence of the Cultural Revolution in Mao Tse-Tung's China.

Over two acts, the stories are presented interleaved, coming together at the close to make their common point: "Believe, Survive, Endure."

The production, by Mr. Pountney, shifts rapidly between Germany, Mississippi and China. Swastika banners, Red Chinese flags and a chalkboard are primary visual components. Ordinary tables doubling as beds, desks, and even tables. The actors move the props on and off the stage rapidly, changing on the fly as the music shifts underfoot. The Chinese scenes also feature some impressive puppetry by the troupe Blind Summit Theater. They depicted the murdered school-teachers. In a later scene scene, they made a comic mockery of the local Communist Party.

To accompany this complex set of stories and time-slides, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has written an astonishingly fluid score. The music of Kommilitonen! flips like a TV remote. An onstage marching band competes with a lone erhu player in the Chinese scenes. Wallis Guinta was impressive in the trouser role of Wu, the son of the two murdered  teachers who ultimately joins the party. As Zhou, the Red Guard member who participated in the killing, Karen Vuong gave a convincing portrait of the banality of evil.

Mississippi has a gospel flavor, with the chorus singing a variant on "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" in contrast with Will Liverman's soliloquies as James Meredith. Mr. Liverman was something of a cipher as Meredith, but maybe that's because the ever-shifting libretto does not penetrate his story-line with the same amount of depth. That is reserved for the White Rose story, with the Scholl siblings movingly portrayed by Deanna Breiwick and Alexander Hajek. Their death ended the opera, but not before they painted graffiti denouncing Hitler across the stage and dropped Kommilitonen! leaflets from the balcony.

The German scenes take their musical idiom from composers banned by the Nazis: Weill, Krenek, and maybe a dash of Ullmann. They also incorporate an excerpt from "The Grand Inquisitor", the most famous chapter from Fyodor Dosteyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. This is a parable where the Inquisitor interrogates Jesus Christ. The interrogator was played by baritone AubreyAllicock. Jesus was an empty chair. Tenor Noah Baetge narrated as the Evangelist.

Conductor Anne Manson held this complex score together with tight, sprung rhythms in the orchestra and clear delineation of tone-rows in the woodwinds. Add in  the marching band, the offstage chorus and singers up in the balconies, and this opera becomes a tough set of challenges. It came off razor-sharp.

Following the performance, the audience was greeted with a small party of Occupy protestors. They had decided to take their "people's microphone" to Lincoln Center that night. Sir Peter, walking past the little group, stopped to talk to the Occupiers as thirty or so cops stood around. He clearly approved.

A Soundtrack for Zuccotti Park

Today was going to feature the review of Handel's opera Rodelinda, with Renée Fleming in the title role. But when we came home late last night, it was to a Twitter stream of violence and flagrant violations of Americans' First Amendment rights to peaceably assemble. In fact, it was war in the streets of Manhattan, with Kevlar-vested weapon-wielding thugs (the NYPD) enforcing the will of New York Mayor Michael "I can pay to stay in office as long as I want" Bloomberg.
I'll write the review tonight and it will probably be up tomorrow. In the meantime, I decided to write about heavy metal protest music. Hey, it's my blog, and WNYC already did classical protest music. So...

Top Ten Heavy Metal Protest Songs

People in this business are often surprised when they learn I'm a metal fan in addition to having an ear for classical music and opera. I got into Metallica because I thought "One" sounded like chamber music albeit played really loud. Still do. Anyway here are some songs for Zuccotti, Occupy Wall Street and for the righteous anger of the 99%.
10) "Clenching the Fists of Dissent" by Machine Head.
This ten-minute track kicks off the San Francisco group's The Blackening. Title pretty much says it all along with Robb Flynn's roared vocals and razor-sharp guitar.
"Didn't say I want to lead, I just might let you down."
9) "Broken, Beat and Scarred" by Metallica.
From 2008's comeback bid Death Magnetic, a song about persevering in the face of adversity. Metallica have written a lot of protest songs but this is the most recent.
"What don't kill ya, make ya more strong."
8) "Two Minutes to Midnight" by Iron Maiden.
One of the best anti-war protest songs from the '80s. The lyrics are really about nuclear war, but Maiden were playing this a lot onstage when the war in Iraq broke out.
"We oil the jaws of the war machine and feed it with our babies."
7) "Resistance" by Queensrÿche.
"Protests in New York, listen to the call of the wild! Brothers, sisters carrying signs."
That's the first line of this classic track featuring Geoff Tate's giant tenor voice. The song is 20 years old, folks. It hasn't aged. Nor has our country grown up.
6) "Open Letter (To a Landlord)" by Living Coloür.
Especially poignant for New Yorkers, a tale of inner-city survival against greedy land developers and landlords who don't care about the human beings living in their buildings.
"This is my neighborhood. This is where I come from."
5) "Fucking Hostile" by Pantera.
From the group's aptly named Vulgar Display of Power. Philip Anselmo breaks down relations of the ordinary man to parents, police, the clergy and other authority figures. Late, great guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott plays the kamikaze solo over a gallop.
"If you crossed me, I'd shake your hand like a man, not a god."
4) "Peace Sells" by Megadeth.
There have been a lot of rage-fuelled Megadeth protest songs from the pen of Dave Mustaine. This was one of the first, and one of the best. Its opening bassline used to announce MTV News and it's still relevant today. From Peace Sells (But Who's Buying?)
"Can you put a price on peace?"
3) "United" by Judas Priest.
From what is arguably Priest's most successful album, the legendary British Steel. Rob Halford was really singing about gay rights here, but this cut (with its memorable chorus) is an underrated anthem.
"Look around, they're moving in.
Hold your ground, when they begin."
2) "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath
From Paranoid. It doesn't get more old-school than Ozzy's howl over Tony Iommi's heavy chords, Terence "Geezer" Butler's agile bass and Bill Ward's powerhouse drumming. And they're back together as of last Friday! "Oz-zy! Oz-zy!" (though Geezer wrote the lyrics.)
"Politicians hide themselves away. They only started the war.
 Why should they go out to fight? They leave that role to the poor ."
1) "Killing in the Name" by Rage Against the Machine.
Tom Morello and Zack de la Rocha pretty much said it all in this cut from their first pipe-bomb of an album.
"Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me."

Got a suggestion for this list? Leave it in the comments below.
Better yet, donate to Occupy Wall Street and support your local occupation today!

Opera Review: Protest and Survive

The Metropolitan Opera revives Satyagraha.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Peaceful journey: Richard Croft as Mohandis K. Gandhi in Satyagraha.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

Talk about good timing.

No one could predict that the Metropolitan Opera's scheduled revival of Satyagraha, Philip Glass' 1980 opera retelling incidents in the life of Mohandis K. Gandhi, would coincide with Occupy Wall Street. Based in lower Manhattan, the Occupy movement models itself on the Mahatma's principle of "truth-force", or non-violent protest, that gives the opera its title.

Concert Review: The Devil Went Down to Wall Street

Occupy Stravinsky performs at Zuccotti Park.

The Devil is a blonde: Elizabeth Stanley (center) tempts Nick Choksi (left) as Erik Liberman (right) looks on.
Photo taken at Occupy Wall Street, Nov. 3, 2011, © the author. 

"Mic check!"

"Mic check!" 

"We are...Occupy Stravinksy!"

"We are...OCCUPY STRAVINSKY!"