Rigoletto produced by Manitoba Opera

Victor Hugo + Verdi = Rigoletto.  What grandeur; what art!  @ManitobaOpera ‘s current playing production is worth seeing. 

womanizer + jester + curse = great opera.  This is a treatise, without benefit of feminist sensibilities, on fickleness (at one point the Duke says “Women are as fickle as feathers in the wind.”) and infidelity (the aforementioned Duke’s!).  Actually very enjoyable.  Not a spoiler alert – the ending has all the joy of a Shakespearean tragedy!

And btw, who is Gilda’s mother?

"Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" - an acclaimed documentary

“Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” (@AWWNeverSorry) is a great documentary: expansive and touching.  It captures the essence of this Chinese artist: as an intellectual, his art and his activism (political, social, human rights).  He appears to remain an optimist notwithstanding the repression and his personal persecution by the Chinese authorities.  This movie shows that Ai Weiwei really gets freedom of expression – even when in exercising it, especially with the Chinese police, he puts his own personal safety at risk.  He has clearly mastered the use of the Internet, particularly Twitter (see @aiww if you can read Chinese), and used it to great effect to further his causes – much to the chagrin of the Chinese government – but also to our amusement! One of his mottoes sums up his active use of the digiverse: "Never retreat. Retweet."

This piece is well worth seeing.  At the time of my writing this it is being shown at Cinematheque in Winnipeg.