El Nino & Ragtime

OK, this may seem like a strange juxtaposition, but on Sunday night I was at Carnegie Hall to attend a performance of John Adams's Nativity Oratorio, El Nino, and then tonight I was at the Neil Simon Theatre for a performance of the musical "Ragtime."   Both theatrical events, both musical events, both quite satisfying.

John Adams is an excellent conductor of his own music, and he had superior forces on hand for the concert performance of his striking piece.  The Westminster Symphonic Choir, the Orchestra of St. Lukes, a stellar line-up of soloists (Dawn Upshaw, Michelle De Young, Eric Owens, Daniel Bubeck, Brian Cummings, and Steven Rickards) and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus for the finale.  Adams has pieced together an interesting libretto from varied sources - many from Spanish poetry, some performed in the original language, and some liturgical texts - to produce a true Christmas oratorio.  I found most striking the choral movements, especially in the second half, where it seemed to me that Adams has absorbed his Orff and much else.  The piece is very effective, and it will be interesting to see whether it will work its way into the regular Christmas season repertory.

"Ragtime" - When I saw the original Broadway production, I thought that the story had been done in by the overblown production and special effects.  The current revival, in a smaller house and on a more intimate scale, works quite beautifully.  The book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, all based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow, stand up well to the passage of time.  Although the story is set more than 100 years ago, the themes of racial animosity and immigrant striving remain quite fresh.  It is interesting to see the contrast of the promise of America and the cruelty of America.  All of the case seemed quite strong, even though there are no "big names" as such, but especially noteworthy was Quentin Earl Darrington, making his Broadway debut as Coalhouse Walker.  This man can act up a storm and has a glorious voice - which he knows how to use.  He was a solid gold hit.  This is not to detract from the rest of the cast, as a successful Ragtime production is an ensemble effort, and this ensemble flowed quite smoothly.  I've heard that it is not doing so well financially - the house is heavily papered with TDF discount tickets - but the audience clearly had a great time, and I think the show deserves to run a long time.  I hope long enough to justify a cast recording, because I think Mr. Darrington's performance, in particular, needs to be preserved.

The Tallis Scholars in New York: Josquin Mass & English Renaissance

The Tallis Scholars presented an interesting two-part program this evening at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Times Square, NYC.  The first half was devoted to a performance of Josquin des Prez's Missa de Beata Virgine.  The second half was devoted to English Renaissance music: John Nesbett's Magnificat, nine tunes by Thomas Tallis for Archbishop Parker's Psalter, and three motets by William Byrd.  Peter Phillips, founder and director of the ensemble, led the program.

This church has now become the regular venue for Tallis Scholar programs in NYC presented under the auspices of the Early Music Series curated by Miller Theatre Columbia University.  In earlier seasons, they had appeared at Riverside Church and St. Thomas's on 5th Avenue, but St. Mary's seems well established for the series after several seasons, and it is a marvelous setting for this music.  Despite the proximity to Times Square, the church is very quiet, and large enough to provide the kind of resonant space in which this music can really take wing.

Phillips announced at the beginning of the program that the group will be recording the Josquin mass early next year.  Be on the lookout for the recording.  This is a substantial piece well worth hearing.  According to Phillips' interesting note in the program book, individual movements of the Mass are found in many different sources in Europe, suggesting that it was written as separate movements rather than an integrated whole, as some of Josquin's later masses inspired by particular motet themes would be.  But the entire piece did hang together quite nicely in this performance.

The Nesbett is a louder, more "in your face" piece, and made a fine effect to start the second half.  The Tallis tunes are lovely short hymns, the third of which was Vaughan Williams' inspiration in his early 20th century string orchestra composition, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.  It is perhaps a sign of the absence of V-W's music from American orchestra programs that there was no sense of recognition in the audience when that hymn was sung.  More's the pity.  The only time I've heard it played live was by the Ithaca College orchestra at Cornell University when I was an undergraduate in the early 1970s - and I've been a regular symphony concert-goer in NYC for the past 30+ years.  V-W does a fantastic job of evoking the feeling of English Renaissance music with his big composition, but it is exciting to hear the original in its proper context and to marvel at the magnificent structure that V-W built up out of this simple hymn tune.

The Byrd motets provided an appropriate closer for the program, beginning with his memorial to Tallis, "Ye sacred muses," setting a brief English-language verse.  The remaining two were politically-charged Latin motets, as explained in Phillips' notes, illustrating Byrd's fervent underground Catholicism in newly-Protestant England.

For an encore, they performed a Gombert motet calling for 4 tenors, which sounded splendid.

At the outset, Phillips announced that CDs by the Tallis Scholars would be available for sale during the intermission.  But a quick check at the table was disappointing.  Perhaps these musicians are just not good capitalists.  They only had a small sample of their work available, and so failed to exploit the situation adequately.  The attendant at the table announced with regret that the only Josquin recording was quickly gone.  (Not the Mass they performed, as Phillips made very clear in his announcement.)  With the disappearance of many bricks-and-mortar classical outlets from NYC, selling CDs at concerts are a main opportunity for groups to generate revenue and reach their dedicated fans, but The Tallis Scholars "blew it" on this occasion.  In addition, it would make sense, if they have an inventory, to offer copies of Peter Phillips' marvelous book about The Tallis Scholars, What We Really Do, which was published in 2003 and mentioned in his bio in the program.  But these folks are so inadequate in marketing themselves that the books are also unavailable at the concert.

"Loaded," a new play by Elliot Ramon Potts

Mr. Potts has come up with a nifty two-character piece now running at The Lion Theatre on Theatre Row (42nd Street) in Manhattan.  Kevin Spirtas plays Patrick, a middle-aged man living alone in a typically messy Manhattan studio apartment.  Scott Kerns plays Jude, a recent college grad living in the burbs with his mom.  They have connected through a gay chat room and Jude has been visiting Patrick for sex from time to time.

The lights come up on the two men lying in bed in each other's arms, naked and exhausted just post-sex.  From the various remains of take-out food boxes and the early conversation, it is clear that this has been a mini-marathon of sex interrupted by delivered food.  And finally conversations, which is what young Jude has been looking for, wanting their relationship to develop beyond sex-buddies into something more, and resisted by Patrick, whose experience has made him cynical and fearful of commitment, whose snappy comebacks lead to arguments and a 90+ minute dialogue exploring the conditions of gay relationships, gay politics, relationships between gay men and lesbians, and most significantly the "gap" in experience and understanding between men who "came out" during the early years of the AIDS Epidemic and the youngsters who have grown up and come out into a culture where AIDS is old news. 

The two actors are excellent, totally inhabiting their characters.  The dialogue is sometimes a little too much like "set speeches" instead of naturally flowing conversation, but those problems are fleeting.  Important issues are raised.  Those who are offended by full frontal male nudity in the theater may have a problem, but it is fleeting and this is not a sex show - it's about the dialogue, and the nudity (which does not persist through the entire 90+ minutes sans intermission) is not the central point.  Prudes stay away, and others won't be bothered -- and may find some excitement, since the two men are both nice to look at.  But the point is that it is a serious play, explores serious issues, has serious actors at work, and is well directed by Michael Unger to have the feeling of a real confrontation and dialogue between the gay generations. 

Invictus - Another Score for Clint Eastwood

What can I add?  Clint Eastwood knows how to make a terrific film.  Morgan Freeman channels Nelson Mandela - it's eerie!!!  Matt Damon is back in shape after his informant days - and how!  And there is a gritty realism to it, even if the rugby stuff is softened over a bit and there is some rather obvious point-making and emotion-jerking going on.  It's absorbing from the first minute to the last, and if it makes Mandela out to be a bit too saintly--well then, perhaps there is truth to that as well.

Supreme Court of Ireland Reverses Recognition for Gay Family; Authorizes Access to Child for Sperm Donor Dad

A five-judge panel of the Supreme Court of Ireland, unanimously reversing a trial judge, ruled on December 10 that a lesbian couple and their child do not constitute a legally-recognized family in Ireland and that the gay man who had donated sperm used to conceive their child was entitled as a biological father to seek access to the child in the form of a visitation schedule. However, the court upheld the trial judge’s decision that it would not be appropriate to appoint the sperm donor as a legal guardian of the child, although he was entitled by Irish law to apply for such an appointment.

In the course of reaching its decision in the case of J. McD. v. P.L. & B.M., the court also ruled that the trial judge, who formerly sat for many years as a judge of the European Court of Human Rights, had erred in concluding that the lesbian couple and their child would be regarded as a family under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Such family status, if it were recognized in Ireland, could weigh heavily in balancing their rights as against any rights claimed by the sperm donor. Instead, according to the Supreme Court, the term "family" as used in the Irish Constitution is solely based on a married couple.

The case received a fair degree of notoriety in the media early in 2007, when a different trial judge issued an order sought by the father to keep the mothers from moving to Australia with the child. That order was affirmed by the Supreme Court in response to an emergency appeal.

According to the lead opinion for the court by Justice Susan Denham, the mothers had reached an agreement with a different man to be their sperm donor in 2003, but after several unsuccessful attempts P.L. was unable to become pregnant, and the original donor lost interest. Then the women became friendly with John McD., who offered after some initial hesitation to step in as the sperm donor. They took a written agreement that had been drafted by the prior sperm donor and adapted it to the new arrangement. Under the agreement, McD was not to have any parental rights or obligations, but was to assume the role of a "favorite uncle" with the child with visitation at the discretion of the mothers. This agreement was signed shortly after P.L. became pregnant with sperm donated by McD. The mothers entered into a civil partnership in the U.K. after that status became available in 2005, but this is not recognized in Ireland.

After the child was born, McD became intensely interested, visited more frequently than the women desired, and appeared to them to be poised to attempt to assert a great role than they had contemplated. They sought to temper his enthusiasm by reduced contact, and then announced that they would be traveling to Australia, P.L.’s native country, to introduce the child to P.L.’s family and spend some time there. McD, alarmed at losing contact, instituted the lawsuit under a statute authorizing unmarried biological fathers to seek appointment as legal guardians, seeking such an appointment, joint legal custody, and formal visitation rights. He also sought an order that the child not be removed from Ireland pending the outcome of the suit.

At the time, the trial judge hearing McD’s emergency motion determined to let the mothers take their child to Australia for a few months, but required that they return and stay with the child in Ireland until the case was decided on its merits. During the course of the proceedings, the High Court (that is, the trial court in this case) required the mothers to provide some visitation opportunities for McD, which went off without incident.

However, the trial judge on the merits, John Hedigan, giving great weight to a report prepared by a neutral expert who had interviewed all the parties and who recommended against any compelled contact with McD. Hedigan decided that it was inappropriate to appoint McD as guardian under the circumstances, and that the mothers and their child constituted a "de facto" family which should not be disturbed by requiring access to the child for McD. In reaching this conclusion, Hedigan found that the result would be consistent with Ireland’s treaty obligations under the European Human Rights Convention, finding that under the Convention the lesbian couple and their child would be considered a "family" whose integrity would have to be respected under the law.

The Supreme Court emphatically disagreed with all but one of these conclusions, however. As to the guardianship decision, all the judges agreed that appointing McD a legal guardian of the child would not be in the child’s best interests, given the hostile relationship that now exists between McD and the child’s mothers and the circumstances under which the child was conceived. Such guardianships are more usually set up in cases involving unmarried cohabitation of a different-sex couple with their child, and are intended to provide a legal bond between father and child in such circumstances to protect the relationship.

In this case, however, McD never had such a relationship with the lesbian couple, being merely a casual friend who agreed to donate sperm, and who had signed an agreement foreswearing any desire to be a legal parent. While the court found that such written agreements are not legally enforceable, and noted that the parties had not even signed it until after P.L. became pregnant, it concluded that the agreement was evidence of the arrangements to which the parties had agreed.

Justice Denham concluded that Judge Hedigan had given undue weight to the expert’s report, and that the overriding goal of Irish family law is "to place the child’s welfare as the first and paramount consideration." The court also concluded that Hedigan was mistaken about European Convention law, finding that the European Court has not yet issued any decision holding that a same-sex couple, with or without children, should be considered a "family" for purposes of Article 8 of the Convention, and that in any event Ireland’s accession to the convention treaty did not require subjugating domestic Irish family law to European Court precedents in an individual case. In a separate opinion, Justice John Murray produced an extensive discussion of the complicated interrelationship of Irish domestic law and European human rights law.

The court also decisively rejected Judge Hedigan’s conclusion that the mothers and child could be considered a "de facto" family for purposes of Irish domestic law. The Irish Constitution provides that "the State recognises the Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society, and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antedecent and superior to all positive law," and specifically provides that the State, "therefore, guarantees to protect the Family in its constitution and authority." However, according to Justice Denham, although the Constitution does not "expressly" define the term family, court decisions have unanimously considered that only a marriage is a necessary element for a legal family in Ireland. Unmarried cohabitants may have certain rights and protections under Irish law, but their relationship is not considered a family.

"There is no institution in Ireland of a de facto family," wrote Justice Denham. So when custody and visitation issues arise in cases involving unmarried parents, the special legal status of a family in Irish law is not involved, and the court is to make its decision based on the welfare of the child. In this case, wrote Denham, "The Respondents are a loving couple, taking care of the child, in a settled environment," and this is a "key factor" in determining that McD should not be appointed a legal guardian.

Since the written agreement was not a legally enforceable contract and European Human Rights law was deemed irrelevant, the court decided that the issue of visitation should be determined based on the best interest of the child. "Applying the test to all the circumstances of the case," wrote Justice Denham, "I would make an order enabling access by the father to the child. This is in the best interests of the child. I would envisage this contact at stated times during the year. It may be on one day a month. It may vary according to circumstances. It may vary as time goes by and the child grows up. It may commence by access of the father and child in the cmopany of another. I make no decision on these details and none should be inferred. These are matter which require to be decided. Indeed this result is not very different from the original agreement entered into between the parties."

Justice Denham, echoed by the other judges (three of whom wrote separate opinions explaining their concurrence with the court), expressed a preference for a settlement by the parties rather than a court order. "It may be possible for the parties to arrive at an agreement without the necessity of returning the matter to the High Court to hear parties and to determine the details of access," she wrote. "However, it if is not possible for the parties to reach an agreement on access, I would remit the matter to the High Court for a hearing and determination on that issue."

Among the matters that the parties would have to determine would be whether and how frequently the mothers could take the child with them to visit P.L.’s family in Australia, which is likely to be a continuing point of contention. But all that has yet to be worked out.

LGBT rights campaigners in Ireland immediately responded to the court’s decision with disappointment at the rejection of the de facto family concept, as the national legislature was poised to take up a proposal by the government to enact a Civil Partnership law to provide some legal status short of marriage for same-sex couples. The Irish Times reported on December 11 that Brian Sheehan, director of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, said that the court’s judgment highlighted "the importance and urgency of providing legal support and recognition" for same-sex partners and their child. "Providing a legal framework for parenting, with the welfare of the children the paramount guiding principle, will also help clarify obligations and responsibilities from the outset," he told the newspaper.