Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Thornton Wilder's Alcestiad redux


You might be struggling with disbelief, but Thornton has actually gone back to the Alcestiad!!
I had a little trouble believing it myself; but at least there has been no more talk of Icelandic Sagas.
"Reviews of The Alcestiad were mixed, with some of them highly critical." About reviews of the London production. (page 628 of Thornton Wilder; a life.) And then they made a German opera of it, which premiered in Frankfurt, Germany in 1962!!!

As for myself have resolved, again to order no more books for a while, because I am seriously behind in reading the ones I already have. I have made this resolution fewer times than TW resumed work on the Alcestiad, but hope to stick to it better than he did. I just looked on Librarything, where I keep track, and they can create a page of statistical calculations about the books one has listed. I don't delete books that I give or throw away, though, I just note it in the entry, so I have a few less than that. (Although I have some books in California that are still not entered. . .)
 My favorite statistics are that if stacked up, my library would be almost as tall as the St. Louis Arch! And quite a bit higher than the Washington Monument! Oh, well, I could be addicted to alcohol, but it seems so impermanent. . . almost vaporous. . .
This was a beautiful snowy morning; the ducks are out in force above. Good night.
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