I can't look into this elephant's eye and not feel distress.
I guess everyone who's currently living in lockdown has some sort of sense of feeling caged in.
I can't look into this elephant's eye and not feel distress.
And then my thoughts go back to a family holiday in London when I was in my mid-teens. We went to London Zoo in Regent's Park. One animal we certainly wished to see for family name reasons was Guy the Gorilla who Linda and I had seen on Children's Television programmes.
And, yes, he was there, in a small cage, barely big enough for him to stretch out in any direction, sat still, staring, overweight. And though even in the late 60s animal welfare was not talked about much, this spectacle of ruin did not seem right to me. And I didn't want to stay and gawp.
These images are taken from an Eastern European zoo. I find the image of the mangy, moth-eaten bear distressing and the image of the elephant resting its forehead against the wall so poignant as to take the breath away. Anyone who feels that they are sick and tired of isolation, lockdown and social distancing should immediately be able to empathise with both animals.
If we learn nothing else from lockdown, I hope that it is a further extension of our understanding of how our maltreatment of other animal species causes them distress. As Jeremy Bentham said in 1789 in his Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation...
...the question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being?
I hear that Cummings has recovered from his brush with Covid. I can't say that I'm thrilled but I am somehow reminded of a tale of Lord Randolf Churchill, Winston's father. He was taken into hospital for an operation and surgeon's removed a tumour which turned out to be benign. On hearing this, one MP remarked, "Trust the medicos to remove from Randolf Churchill the only thing that was benign."
Meanwhile, Leo's dog Momo sniffs at blossom...
...Mum is making short videos that I send out via WhatsApp to greet the family...
...Tom is looking good...
...and this woman is perhaps taking the idea of antivirus face coverings too literally.
Meanwhile Killing Eve: Series Three has landed on UK Television and I'm afraid that I have to say that is it yet another ratcheting down of the original brilliance of the concept/formula. It's still better than most TV but the sparkle is dampened.
One for the ages, however, was this webcast of Wagner's Parsifal from the Metropolitan Opera in New York. I had been disappointed not to be able to catch this performance when it was shown at FACT back in March 2013 but I was far too busy with my first full half term as a teacher at that point in my life.
I've delighted to catch it now. The Met have decided that, since they have closed their house down because of the pandemic, they are going to show an opera every night through video cast free of charge. It's a bold move. I don't know how many times I shall tune in but it's certainly worth keeping an eye on to fill in some gaps.
François Girard had put together an uncluttered and direct production. I would say that it is spiritually secular rather than specifically religious or even Christian. It is about seeking wisdom through experience: truth through suffering. Though opulent is its staging, I would say that it still balances the simple and the complex with deftness.
Daniele Gatti took charge of the music and was fabulous. There was a flow and a sonority to the soundscape and it was gorgeous to listen to.
My only carp would be that, though the music of the Good Friday transformation was absolutely transcendent, the staging did not reflect that sense of total rebirth - yes a spring starting to flow showed something was happening but that fountainhead made no change to any other element on stage.
All of the major performers were from the top drawer. René Pape as Gurnemanz: Katarina Dalayman as Kundry: Peter Mattei as Amfortas: Jonas Kaufmann as Parsifal: Evgeny Nikitin as Klingsor.
Even in the every day surroundings of home using my laptop and speakers, it transformed into a monumentally satisfying experience.
Deo gratias.