Word: operas
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...Daniel arap Moi's oppressive rule, Ngugi wrote Matigari, a novel whose eponymous hero travels the country protesting against the regime. Because [an error occurred while processing this directive] Matigari posed questions Kenyans were afraid to ask, they talked about him as if he were real, the way soap-opera fans and comic-book lovers do. "The regime thought there was a guy actually going around asking 'Where can a person find truth and justice in this land?,'" says Ngugi. "So Moi sent the police to arrest him." Realizing the character was fictional, they arrested the book instead and Matigari...
...comic, the sullen stoolie who talks in the guarded whisper of cell block and exercise yard ... HE IS HARD-MUSCLED, HANDSOME, HANDY WITH A SNUB-NOSE .38, AND HIS HIDE IS AS TOUGH AS THE BLUING ON A PISTOL BARREL. Decent, disillusioned and altogether incredible, he is a soap opera Superman. He is television's 'Private Eye.' Smarter than the cops, craftier than the crooks, too quick to be caught and domesticated by the classiest doll, TV's private detective runs second to only one competitor in the race for ratings. So far, in a season riddled with old scandals...
Groucho Marx, as Otis B. Driftwood in A Night at the Opera, and his brother Chico, as Fiorello, are haggling over a contract for an opera singer's services, when Groucho brings up one more clause: "It says 'If any of the parties participating in this contract is shown not to be in their right mind, the entire agreement is automatically nullified.'" When Chico demurs, Groucho soothingly replies, "It's all right, that's in every contract. That's what they call a 'sanity clause'." Chico laughs derisively. "You can't fool me!" he snorts. "There ain't no Sanity...
...What makes Barton a master is his prodigious musical talent, coupled with cultural insight. The son of well-known "Dream-time Opera Diva" Delmae, Barton was taught the didgeridoo from the age of seven by his uncle Arthur Petersen, a tribal elder. "I remember the first day-actually, when I got circular breathing-literally jumping for joy," he says. "Yeah, that was a good day." Barton never forgets the good fortune that has helped shape his career. After his uncle's death, Barton inherited Petersen's didgeridoo, and not long after, the teenager was invited to join an Aboriginal dance...
...This week sees the Sydney Opera House world premiere of Lim's new work for didgeridoo, flute and orchestra, and the SSO may never sound the same again. The Perth-born composer was interested in how Barton could reconfigure the symphonic frequencies of the orchestra, and The Compass is about "tilting the horizon point," she says. "In a way, the didgeridoo collects all the low instruments around it." The piece also brings Barton back to his roots. He begins with a chant in his native Kalkadunga tongue, since "the voice is absolutely the heart of what the didgeridoo's about...