Please see attached newpaper of Jun. 26 Saturday of Xinmin Evening News, which is the among the oldest and biggest evening newspapers in China. Hope you enjoy it.
The title is "93 years lady longing for 58th cycles of The Ring in Shanghai". The article is based on your interview in Email and adapted by a famous Shanghai reporter Mr. Yang Jianguo.
Have a nice day.
Pan
The music drama “Wagner’s rings” , co-sponsors by Xinmin News and City Dancing Co., will be on staged in September in the Shanghai Grand Theatre for eight performance. Once announced, audiences bought and booked tickets enthusiastically. An 92 years old lady, Ms. Verna Parino, who had booked 4 performances of the music-drama and proposed her wish to visit the World Expo aroused the curiosity of the reporter in Xinmin News. The reporter interviewed her through internet and got her 3 pages reply immediately.
Ms. Verna Parino said she has watched 57 cycles of the Ring in 30 cities in 18 countries and she is going to watch her 58 cycles of the music-drama in Shanghai. Ms. Parino lives in San Francisco and was a medical worker. In 1930’s she listened the Ring radio broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera and the first time to attend the performance was in 1973 in San Francisco . From that performance on, she has been fond of music drama , especially the Rings. Since then, she has became member of the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Symphony . Also , she joined the Wagner Society of Northern California and became its president for three years . After her husband passed away, she has acted as an art volunteer. Because she is so fond of the “Rings” , besides writing comments of the Rings, she enjoys collecting worldly researches or information relating to that music drama . In Ms. Verna Parino reply letter, she also shared with us her happiness and challenges in attending the cycles and collecting information of the music drama.
She said everytime she watched the performance, she will be inspired and got something new for her to comprehend. She mentioned this music drama tells about the beginnings of the world, inner conflicts of human beings and the struggling and fighting for worldly power. The story simulates the audiences to explore the meaning of existence of human beings. The reason for her pursuing to attend the performance is the gorgeous orchestral music pouring out the beautiful feeling of human beings and providing her to enjoy in an excited state . For her, she has addicted to watch the “Rings” and her life and the Rings have already fused together. When she was told that the Rings will be performed in Shanghai at a meeting of the Wagner Society , she immediately decided to watch her 58 cycles and visited Shanghai again. She visited Shanghai in 1982 with a tour group and attended a concert. She recalled during the intermission, some audiences gathered round and looked at the musical instruments and some attendees searching dictionary to communicate and chat with her in English . After that , I got a copy of the recording broadcast from Kurt Herbert Adler, the General Directo of San Francisco Opera . When she listened the records, she also can hear her applause and “Bravo”.
Shanghai is a sister city of San Francisco. These years, she really wants to visit Shanghai again and watching the Rings provides her a good reason to visit Shanghai again. Members of the Wagner Society told her it’s worth for her to visit the World Expo if she be there. Recently, she has watched news about the Expo in the internet and found it’s very attractive and wonderful. Ms. Parino said that her health is not bad and long distance flight will not be a problem for her but may be a problem for her to walk too much . So, she will bring a wheelchair and will arrive Shanghai two days early .
Finally, she hopes her visit in Shanghai will be a wonderful and happy journey and she is happily looking forward for that.
It was marvellous to meet Verna in Shanghai and count her a friend. We all enjoyed a superlative Ring and raced around Expo! Verna was also on television there.
ReplyDeleteRobert Woodley, Sydney, Australia