What is “Monostatos”? One example…:-0

This photograph was taken by one of the cadre of players that I call “Monostatos”. I was introduced to this person at Orchestra Hall and since this person was also an avid amateur photographer they asked if they could photograph me. I was looking for a photo for an upcoming recital and was delighted at the offer.

When this person arrived at my house for the photo session , I was practicing  in my studio with the windows open.  I happened to be practicing a Mozart violin concerto.  When I went to open the front door  they practically burst in and almost literally ran around the first floor, whispering, “Mozart!  Mozart! Mozart!”  I laughed, and said, “Yes, that is what I was playing,’ but they then gave me a horrified look, as though I didn’t understand.  At that point I became puzzled. I have since been told that some people think they hear the voice of Mozart in the sound of die zauberflote, but at that time didn’t really have a clue. (I am not aware of hearing any voice, for the most part.) Later I did ask their help in getting me a proper introduction to the Music Director, but they declined to do so.   I was, of course, puzzled and disappointed.  Some time after this, this person contracted a terminal illness and died.

For those who thought I was not supportive of the current players during the lockout, I ask you to look at this situation from my somewhat unique and eccentric viewpoint, which is that if I did not care about them I would have remained silent and not bothered to try to warn them about the one of the clique who remains who may have led them astray. And I would have to have that burden on my conscience as well…

 

 

 

 

In the interim…or perhaps at all…my response to Andrew Patner’s attack on the Slipped Disc blog…

Initially this post was intended to provide some food for thought until the complete replies were posted to resolve Andrew Patner’s vicious and unwarranted attack on the Slipped Disc blog:

Met latest: Artists celebrate, Gelb in disarray

On further consideration, spending any significant effort on what anyone with a reasoning mind can see is drivel is hardly valuable…

Mr Patner, the Chicago music critic blindly  said, “Pamela Brown has been called ‘the most exciting musician since Mozart’ and her playing ‘the real magic flute’ by ‘professionals’ we will just refer to as “Monostatos”, who then shunned have attempted to lock her out.” PB also tells us that these people were known to “target my children.”

Mr. Patner’s lack of curiosity here speaks volumes.  Considering the fact that Mr. Patner has given indications of knowing precisely what I am talking about and has decided to attempt to ridicule it, the appearance of ennui speaks even louder.

During the MO lockout I referenced a cadre of players who targeted me and my children by calling them “Monostatos”.  Those events took place some time ago.  Some took place on the stage at Orchestra Hall, behind the back of MOA.  (Not all of these players are dead or have left the MO; one  still seems to be leading others astray.) It was “Monostatos”, in fact, those very people whom Mr. Patner appears to respect, who made those statements to me in person but declined to do so at the level of the press.

Perhaps Mr. Patner or anyone else who might be looking for consistency in my posts might consider dragging themselves away from the myriad fabulous performances of those of whom they approve of , and sitting down with a vocal score or libretto of Mozart’s last major opera, The Magic Flute, and then reading it with an open mind. Even Mr. Patner might be surprised. :-0

Let me provide a link to one for handy reference:

http://www.murashev.com/opera/The_Magic_Flute

In addition, let this thread give anyone who has begun to ask themselves just how ‘credible’ Mr. Patner’s stance is an opportunity to ask themselves a serious question — do you listen with your head or with your ears?  I ask this because I can assure you that there are many who will happily present themselves as ‘credible’ in order to steer you to where they want you to go.  In short, they will be happy to do your thinking for you.  If you listen with your head, you will be vulnerable to being deceived and led astray.  If you listen with your ears, your chances of staying grounded are considerably stronger.

Then, if you wish, you can ask yourself another question — do you really believe that those who claim to be professionals and insist that they have a trained ear are unable to discern the unique sound of Mozart when they hear it?

If Mr. Patner and “Monostatos” know that what they hear is indeed the essence, or inner voices, of Mozart in die zauberflote, and they are telling you to ridicule this, what does this mean?

 

#MinnegeddonPartDeux — Andrew Patner and the sock-puppet venticelli…:-0

I love the Met.  I follow Met threads on the Slipped Disc blog.  I had just posted about my early memories about being bussed down to the Met in grade school to watch rehearsals.  I was enraptured — so were my classmates.  One of them even became a docent at the San Francisco Opera.  

So you can imagine my abject horror when I received an email showing a new comment to a Met thread.  It was not about the Met — it was about me!  Not only that, it was a rant that included my name, my actual website, the fact that I also am a JFK assassination researcher, and the rest was libelous drivel.  As someone who uses the alias “Amy” on SD and other blogs has been dogging my posts for months, I made the assumption that “Andrew Patner” was probably one of her aliases.  I immediately emailed Norman Lebrecht, who runs the SD blog, and begged him to remove the post. He declined to do that, explaining that Andrew Patner is in fact a real person, in fact, an esteemed Chicago music critic, and that he had made that post.  Norman suggested that I ‘slug it out’ so to speak, on the SD blog.  Here is a link to the thread:

Met latest: Artists celebrate, Gelb in disarray

So I did defend myself.  And I asked for an apology from him and “Amy” and the other sock-puppets who tried to dogpile on me in that thread.  That was a couple of days ago.  I am still waiting…

Die Zauberflote…has the opera come to life in Minnesota?

Let’s see if I can give you a brief rundown of characters that exist in the opera Die Zauberflote as well as in real life…rather than give you their actual names, I will share with you the names I have given them in my saga “Piper to the Alternative”…which is fictional, but drawn from real life…

Well, me, of course — Pamina, who knew the sound of Mozart’s music even before I knew his name.

My Father, Dorian Payne.  He was a metallurgist.  He gave me my flute.

My Mother, Mildred, the real Queen of the Night.  She was a very powerful witch, able to hurl curses and cause a room to turn white with her anger. Mildred also bewitches just about everyone except Pamina, who, because of the flute, sees right through her.  Mildred’s lack of the protection of secrecy around Pamina causes her to repeatedly rage at her daughter.

The QOTN’s Ladies in waiting — they manage to turn into wannabe’s…Starla, Karin and Mili…

Papageno — my dear friend Paul, who has supported me through a lot of angst…

Tamino — a bit of a mystery…listen to the sound of the flute and then you can decide…

The three children  — Karl, Krystof and Karin

Monostatos — Maurice Magus, Principal Flute at the Salzburg Northland State Orchestra, Christopher Rand, player, and Cranston Revellard, conductor (plus others)…

Oh, and of course Sarastro…but that may be another mystery:-)

 

#MinnegeddonPartDeux…the politics of shame? :-0

As those of us at the nucleus of die zauberflote sit in the silent center of a very noisy vortex that seems to carry with it waves of both good and evil, it can be very difficult and even stressful to attempt to analyze what is going on on the outside.  Nonetheless, there have recently been some very curious events that seem, on one level, almost inexplicable, while on another level evidence that things are moving forward in a positive way.

This spring, someone I considered to be a close friend, whose word, in fact, I rarely ever doubted, did an about face and treated me rudely not only in emails but at a public event.  This was such uncharacteristic behavior that I spent some serious time doubting that I had perceived things correctly.  But, as others were also present, my worst fears were confirmed.  Behind the scenes, it then appeared, that another person who has made it very obvious that they are my adversary, appears to have goaded this usually charming person into behaving badly.  

So it has dawned on me that what I call the “Hook of Lermontov”, or the underlying agenda against die zauberflote coming forward to the level of the press, has not yet been entirely removed.  While there appears to be so much positioning, and scurrying around behind the scenes and behind our backs, it would be supremely naive to fail to acknowledge this salient point. 

Often times with die zauberflote the experience is quite similar to an airplane flight — while ascending there are usually choppy patches which can at times appear to be threatening, but are, in fact, just part of the process of climbing to a cruising altitude which is usually much more smooth. So it is with die zauberflote — some days are gleefully full of joy and shalom and others seem fraught with unexpected controversy.  If there is one thing I have learned about it, it is that it is indeed magic, in that one never knows what to expect.  Some people are comfortable with this, while others are not.  Some even seem to take offense.  In this case, I can imagine that my ex-friend may be quietly editing their chapter on “How to try to destroy the Most Exciting Musician Since Mozart” (words of a ‘pro’, not mine) while the adversary tries to figure out who the next proxies will be while they segue back over to the other side of the world in order to keep them ‘safe’ from the consequences of trying to block die zauberflote…in any case, this is certainly a curious and interesting time…:-0

 

#MinnegeddonPartDeux — Mozart’s gift and a Philosopher’s Stone? :-0

It has seemed to me for quite some time that the key to what actually happened to Wolf at the end of his life lay with the usual gift that he had that nobody talks about.  This is the gift that one astute listener actually defined as the “Mozart effect”.  There is undoubtedly something about his music that is calming and grounding, and something that speaks ineffably of hope and goodness.  It is my thinking that the lack of discussion about this extra gift that hardly any other composer had, and none certainly to the degree that Wolf did, stems from an agenda that was used during his lifetime and has been used ever since.  

In occult literature from ancient times onward there has been discussion of a “Philosopher’s Stone,” or something that a talented alchemist could use to transmute base metal into gold.  There has been much secrecy and mystery about this concept.  Nevertheless, some allude to having used it, and others seemed to show up unexpectedly with significant sums of money.  

I don’t think it took much for people around Wolf to realize that, not only did he have this unusual gift of creating extraordinary music right out of his head, but that he had an energy that differed from that of others.  This energy could be vampirized by those of ill intent.  And this vampirized energy could be used as a sort of Philosopher’s Stone. The only problem was that Mozart had to be successfully slandered in order for the process to work.  So those with ill-intent attempted to ingratiate themselves into his life.  They flattered him to his face and slandered him behind his back.  In the process they managed to vampirize this energy. They received commissions and money as he went into debt.  The slander created, in fact, an extra and false persona.  You might recognize it — the dictionary about it is the movie “Amadeus”.  That is how Mozart was robbed of the worldly abundance that could have been his destiny, and that is how he was robbed of his life…

 

#MinnegeddonPartDeux…if you will just bear with me…

My greatest character fault (that I am aware of; undoubtedly there are others) is that I have a tendency to speak in a matter-of-fact manner about issues that are to others somewhat extraordinary. To add to that failure, I then anticipate that I have won everyone over when, in fact, I may have just left them confused or scared.

As I look at this situation objectively, I can now, after the passage of time, say that I can think of absolutely no reason why anyone should find me or what I say credible. I can hardly imagine, in hindsight, what my poor flute teacher, who was Principal Flute for the MO at the time, for example, was going through. I think, in our own way, each of us was trying to work with the other, without having any understanding of just how wide the gap was. A few months after I started studying with him, he had a near-fatal heart attack. His magnificent sound was compromised, and I don’t think he ever really got it back. After that he seemed somewhat reluctant to schedule lessons with me, and kept sending me off on rabbit trails, as well has having outbursts of what I can now call angry sarcasm at some of the questions I asked. For example, I asked him about his breathing technique on a tricky excerpt. His answer was, “Well, it’s simple. You breathe in, you breathe out.” I much belatedly realized how severely his breath support had been compromised by his health issues. I was, in fact, a poster child for insensitivity in that regard.

And so, I am sure it has been with others with a trained ear. Something that cannot be grasped, something that cannot be controlled, where I seem to be hearing things I am not supposed to be able to grasp (one player ranted and raved because I was singing the ‘inner voices’ to a piece we were listening to. (I still don’t quite get that…:-0)

But at any rate, though, if you meet me in person you will find that I am quite silly and irreverent; in fact, a total opposite of what most anyone would see as a ‘credible musician’. But on the other hand, if you happen to be at all interested, I encourage you to test what I say, rather than just tossing my statements into the trash, so to speak. And in the process, perhaps ask yourself if die zauberflote is so magic that it not only caused a 200M arts organization to come to a grinding halt in order to (as well as for other more obvious reasons) undo damage that was done to me and my three little children, might you then possibly ask yourself if it is impossible that the entire cast of the opera Die Zauberflote has come to life in the 21-st century in Minnesota? For that is at the heart of the mystery of what is happening here…:-)