I care very much for this recording of Pablo de Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen, played with great feeling and power by Jascha Heifetz, accompanied by the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra and conducted by William Steinberg. Zigeunerweisen means “the ways of the gypsies.” What we just heard is rich with the opposites which, I believe, are central […]
Luciano Pavarotti Sings Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma” – A Oneness of Assertion & Yielding
Originally presented at an Aesthetic Realism seminar, "Music Tells Us How We Want To Be—A Celebration!"
An aria I love and think is sublimely beautiful, as millions of people do, is “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini’s last opera Turandot. Here is the beginning sung by the great Luciano Pavarotti with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. I learned from Aesthetic Realism this great principle: “The resolution of conflict in self is like the making one […]
Why Are Women Disappointed & Do We Ever Want to Be?
First presented in a public seminar at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, NYC
In the beautiful Victorian house where I lived while attending college in Montana, I often played and sang loudly miserable songs about disappointment in love, like those from Joni Mitchell’s popular album, “Blue.” Years later I learned—and this is new in civilization—that there was actually a hope in me to be a disappointed woman. Aesthetic […]
Pocahontas & What’s More Important: To Appreciate Rightly or Be Praised?
First presented in a public seminar at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, NYC
Aesthetic Realism explains the fight that can be in women between honestly appreciating the world, and wanting praise just for ourselves. In his book Definitions and Comment, Eli Siegel defines “appreciation” as “The enjoying of a thing by seeing it as it is.” And he explains: Pleasure from a thing is based either on knowing the […]
Is Kindness Possible in Love?
First presented in a public seminar at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, NYC
I’ve seen firsthand that kindness is possible in love and in sex. In fact, it is crucial if a woman is to have the proud emotions she hopes for. I once felt kindness in love wasn’t possible, and I went after something very different. For example, having dressed in a clinging outfit, I remember thinking, […]