29th July 2011 Orfeo - A Lesbian Love Story

The new operatic musical 'Orfeo', on the stage in Barcelona tonight, is going to confuse more than a few classic opera lovers. I can't exactly count myself as one although I do enjoy very much some of the more famous ones, more for the music and singing than the stories.

 

The novelty of this one converts Orfeo and Euridice into a couple of lesbian lovers. Orfeo is interpreted by a mezzosoprano disguised as a man. In this day and age, I guess nobody should feel being scandalized.

The story tells the ill-fated Euridice, just married to Orfeo, dies of a vicious snake attack. The heart wrenching lament of Orfeo touches Amore, Gods of Love, who solicits permission from Gods to send the inconsolable Orfeo down to Hell, with the objective to rescue the beloved Euridice.

 

It's more of a musical spectacle than a pure classic opera, with hints of rock, and computer generated scenes projected on the stage to add atmosphere.

Last performance on Sunday night at Peralada.

 

Tags: orfeo, lesbianlove

Prev: 29th July 2011 Sex And The Red Queen

29th July 2011 Sex And The Red Queen

Alice travels through the mirror in the 2nd part of her journey to the country of the Wonderland where she found the Red Queen. They begin to run until Alice realised that however much they run they are still in the same spot. She asked the Queen: 'What's happening?' and the Queen replied: 'In this country you have to run all you can to remain in the same place. To leave here you have to run double.' This is the evolution of the species.

 

As living beings, we live with others that sometimes harm us or may even put our life in danger. We call this infection. The organisms react, seeking out the best ways to defend themselves, but the pathogens develop and progress to overcome them. It's a race with the objective, as the Red Queen says, all the effort and changing is for being in the same spot. In an article published in 'Science', it explains an interesting experiment regarding this aspect. Conclusion: What permits the organisms to continue in the race is sex.

The experiment is done with some worms that can reproduce themselves in the sexual way, or even fertilise themselves. They have maintain the population of animals for more than 30 generations with the constant presence of bacteria. The data shows that the populations in which there are male and females they would adapt to the presence of bacteria and survive. On the contrary, the hermaphrodites are more vulnerable and the population diminishes.

 

This study, of the University of Indiana in the US, tells us that the presence of pathogens is a force of the evolution and confirms the hypothesis of the Red Queen: one has to gradually change in the gene pool to survive. It also tells us that the cost which implicates for the organisms to have both sexes, is what adapts to the changing conditions of the environment. 

One can thus conclude, that the variations which introduces sexual reproduction are essential for animals and plants changing, at least, to be in the same place as always.

Tags: redqueeen, sex

Prev: 28th July 2011 Good Night, My Angel

29th July 2011 Sex And The Red Queen