Thanks Doug. Lorca got it right really - in that essay he speaks of a
bunch of flamenco dancers, young beautiful women with "waists as
supple as water", all being outclassed by an old woman "dragging the
rusty wings of her duende" who merely stands and clicks her fingers,
and reduces the room to silence. It's kind of undeniable when you see
it. Patti Smith has it too.
Paul Capsis really is astounding - he tours a bit around Europe and
the US, so if he ever brings a cabaret show your way, knock pensioners
(but not Patrick, of course) over to get a ticket. He does a bit of
theatre - he works with Barrie Kosky, now head of Comische Oper in
Berlin, and became a bit of a star in Austria when Barrie was running
the Schauspielhaus in Vienna. That particular show was in a small
space, so very powerfully intimate, but I've seen him hold a big
theatre to pindrop silence.
xA
On Fri, Apr 10, 2009 at 8:07 AM, Douglas Barbour
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Whew, at first I wondered which essay, Benjamin's on the aura, & that word
> you used, but no, it's duende, & what a fine response to it you penned
> (input?).
>
> Like a lot of things, I suspect it exists in the interchange between creator
> & audience, using those terms in their widest manner; that duende is there
> in his performance partly because you felt it as such.
>
> Sounds like quite the theatrical experience, & thanks for offering your
> response, Alison.
>
> Doug
> On 8-Apr-09, at 11:22 PM, Alison Croggon wrote:
>
>> That essay is also in Deep Song & Other Essays (I think it's called
>> that). A signal book for me.
>>
>> Here's me using the term in discussing a totally brilliant cabaret
>> artist, Paul Capsis -
>>
>> http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com/2007/06/on-paul-capsis.html
>>
>> xA
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 12:58 AM, Douglas Barbour
>> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>> Wh definitely had duende, too. I certainly agree about Miles.
>>>
>>> On his last recording, Dolphy said: 'When you hear music, after it’s
>>> over,
>>> it’s gone in the air. You can never capture it again.'
>>>
>>> One of the ironies of trying to deal with Benjamin's concept of the
>>> 'aura,'
>>> which is discussed at length in a new book, Mapping Benjamin: The Work of
>>> Art in the Digital Age, is that the particular music he's speaking of was
>>> recorded 'live' as was the comment, so I have it to mull over over & over
>>> again....
>>>
>>> Doug
>>>
>>> On 7-Apr-09, at 3:10 PM, Stephen Vincent wrote:
>>>
>>>> I don't if it is out on the internet - but Lorca's lecture in Cuba on
>>>> his
>>>> interpretation of "duende" is in the appendix of Ben Bellit's Grove
>>>> Press
>>>> edition of "Poet in New York."
>>>>
>>>> In my early twenties starting out, that essay and Rilke's "Letters to a
>>>> Young Poet" went right to the heart. As did William Carlos William's
>>>> "The
>>>> Desert Music." More so.
>>>>
>>>> I think I will go put on some Eric Dolpy.
>>>
>>> Douglas Barbour
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>>
>>> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
>>>
>>> Latest books:
>>> Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
>>> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
>>> Wednesdays'
>>>
>>> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
>>>
>>> The covers of this book are too far apart.
>>>
>>> Ambrose Bierce
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
>> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
>> Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
>>
>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
>
> Latest books:
> Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
> Wednesdays'
> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
>
> The covers of this book are too far apart.
>
> Ambrose Bierce
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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