THE DYING SWAN

The USA continues to recover from COVID-19.  However, several countries in the Orient are getting worse in new cases per day, and New Zealand, which until recently was admired as a being incredibly successful in fending off this virus, is now suffering.  Yesterday (with new cases/million population in the parentheses):

• South Korea  266,838  (5232)
• Hong Kong  52,523  (6910)
• Singapore  17,564  (2977)
• Austria  32,419  (3602)
• Denmark  19,178  (3307)
• New Zealand  22,582  (4516)
• USA  45,698  (137)
• Taiwan  (2.7)
• China  294  (0.2)

The case of New Zealand is somewhat baffling.  

• For the longest time they had zero new cases daily.  
• Now, this number yesterday was among the world highest at 4516/million population.
• Yet, 95% of New Zealanders over 12 have been vaccinated, and 57% boostered.  
• Probably says something about the contagious effectiveness of the Omicron variant.
• Further, and this is amazing, the total number of deaths up to yesterday for the entire country was only 63, which is a rate of 12.6/million population.  
• Shows that you will almost surely not die if you are vaccinated.  
• Catching this virus now when the nation is mostly vaccinated says something significant about the value of vaccinations.
• The USA is at 2945 total deaths/million. é
• The World average is 760.
• China?  3.2.  But note that they have allowed Hong Kong to join the Western world on this matter, for a glance at the above comparison shows that Hong Kong yesterday led the world in new cases/million with 6910, although their total deaths/million is still a rather low 204.

The topic of day was inspired by watching Classic Arts Showcase.  I was intrigued by a 1916 clip of Vera Karalli performing The Dying Swan, and how long she spent just her toes, called relevé.  So I went to You Tube and found her doing the same in 1914, plus Anna Pavlova even earlier in 1907.  Finally, a third, where I learned that she was the mistress of Russian Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, who reportedly was a co-conspirator in the 1916 murder of Grigori Rasputin.

Vera Alexeyevna Karalli was born in 1989, and lived to be 83, passing away in 1972.  Not only was she a Bolshoi soloist, but became a silent movie star.  She appeared in 16 films, including the 1915 War and Peace.  A little too early for Rotten Tomatoes, which reviewed the 6-hour+ 1968 Russian production at 100%.  Click here to watch that entire movie.  No subtitles.  Better yet, she stars as Gizella in the 1917 melodrama, The Dying Swan.  Again, the whole film, and with English subtitles.

She fled Russian after the October Revolution and moved to Paris, where she lived until the start of World War II.  She later settled in Vienna, Austria, and taught ballet.

The music itself, Le Cygne, is the 13th and penultimate movement of The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1886, originally scored for a cello and two pianos.  Often known as The Dying Swan, the inspiration was a poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson.

The first performer was Anna Pavlova, who was taken by the swans she saw in public parks, working with choreographer Michel Fokine, created this solo 4-minute ballet dance in 1905.  She went on to pass away 4,000 times, and died at the age of 49 in 1931.

Maybe the most famous performance was by Bolshoi prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, who re-interpreted the swan as simply elderly and stubbornly, resisting the effects of aging.  She performed what she called The Swan at her gala celebrating her 70th birthday in 1995.   Unlike Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova (who of course also danced as the dying swan) and Mikhail Baryshnikov, she always refused to defect.  She went on to live to the age of 89.

Here, 3 beautiful performances of The Dying Swan by Plisetskaya, Svetlana Zakharova and Uliana Lopatkina.  One more:  Yuzuru Hanyu from the 2018 Winter Olympics.  He won a second gold medal.

This is Saturday.  One more bit of nostalgia.  Newer than those early dying swans, but you still need to be really old, like me, to appreciate the video.  Baby Boomers--Remember the 50's.

Finally, Barbie was supposedly created in 1959, but how old was she that year?  I guess the following shot assumes she was 22 years old when first sold?

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