The life and death of soprano Maria Callas mirrored the plots of the operas in which she gained fame and notoriety. Arguably one of the three most prominent female celebrities from the early 1950s …
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The life and death of soprano Maria Callas mirrored the plots of the operas in which she gained fame and notoriety. Arguably one of the three most prominent female celebrities from the early 1950s through the late 1960s — the other two were Marilyn Monroe and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis — Callas attempted to address her numerous professional scandals in the same Life magazine issue that featured Monroe on the cover. (I own a copy.)
Both women were also addicted to mood-altering pills that contributed to their deaths. Add in the sordid little factoid that shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis dumped Callas for Jackie (henceforth Jackie O), and you’ve got an operatic triangle fit for the tabloids.
Having read five or six books on Callas, seen just about every worthwhile Callas DVD, and studied her artistry since sparks flew before my eyes as I listened to her famed 1953 recording of Puccini’s Tosca in an Amherst College dormitory, I couldn’t wait for Pablo Larrain and Steven Knight’s new biographical fantasy, Maria, to make it to Netflix. Instead, I made the pilgrimage to the Crest Cinema in Shoreline with my hubby to see Maria on a screen far bigger than our iPads provide. (“Callas cannot be confined to a small screen!” I declared.) The trip was well worth it, for reasons that transcend Angelina Jolie’s potential Oscar-nominated portrayal of Callas during her final drugged out, hallucination-riddled days.
More ink has been spilled on Maria than there are ink trees on the Olympic Peninsula. Few reviews, however, share that one reason for the film’s indispensable importance is that its operatic excerpts are of sufficient length to enable us to hear not only the dramatic specificity and unrivaled intensity of Callas’ portrayals, but also the frightening sounds she hurled forth.
Listen, for example, to the astounding portion of “Ebben? Ne andrò lontana” from Catalani’s La Wally where Callas rises to a climactic high B, the heart-rending sadness and isolation that distinguish her “Ave Maria” from Verdi’s Otello, and the near disastrous “O mio babbino caro” from her final live recital (which is not on the soundtrack recording). The film may omit Callas’ breathtaking coloratura and steely high E-flats, but what it does share bespeaks genius. If you value great art, you must see Maria.
Talk of drama inevitably leads to the ongoing saga of dismissal and injustice at the Port Townsend Food Co-op. In one sense, Dec. 4’s Co-op board meeting marked a new chapter in the battle for equity and inclusion at the Co-op. After months of anger-venting and frustration, meeting attendees were greeted by a sign that said, “Welcome... We are glad you are here!” They also had the ability to dialogue with board members.
Ultimately, however, there was no movement until, on Dec. 5, new board member and lawyer, Debra Kronenberg, resigned from the board. Kronenberg, who joined the board after it voted to throw dedicated equity advocate and Black Lives Matter activist Cameron Jones off the board for violating its ludicrous code of conduct, offered no reason for her resignation in her terse, 17-word email to board President Owen Rowe.
Afterwards, however, Kronenberg, who remains my neighbor and friend despite the determination of our three untamable terriers to rip her far larger and extremely lovely black lab to pieces, shared the following explanation:
“I resigned from the board of directors of the Port Townsend Food Co-op because I realized that I had fundamental professional and personal differences of opinion, approach, and understanding of the current issues facing the Co-op. Within the Co-op’s context and interpretation of policy governance, I finally understood why I had been unable to be effective in the current environment. I felt that, considering both the level of my disagreement and my concomitant frustration, resigning from the board was my best course of action. Even though I am no longer on the board, I remain supportive of what Owen Rowe is trying to accomplish.”
Asked to elaborate, Kronenberg wrote, “I think Owen has been out there and open with his intentions and actions. He has been talking to a lot of people. And, I think to the same people you have been talking to.
“I think Owen’s actions speak for themselves. As did mine. And, no matter what I might think, I have to stay within the Co-op’s C-5 policy. It’s tricky and it’s uncomfortable.”
C-5? That’s the tongue-biting section of the Co-op’s “Policy Register” that decrees: “When interacting with the public, staff, or each other, whether in speech or writing and whether in person or using any printed, electronic, or other communications medium, directors will act with civility and kindness at all times.” Translation: Despite the intensity of your grievances, you’d better act nice, or out you go.
Which leaves us where? As the Co-op Campaign’s December update reminds Co-op member/owners, the Co-op Board has never issued a “thoughtful response” to the letter of grievances submitted on Aug. 9 by Black Lives Matter Jefferson County/Well Organized and Usawa Consulting. They’ve issued no plan to address concerns, have yet to explain which specific violations of C-5 resulted in Jones’ dismissal, and have never acknowledged the potential harm of calling the actions of a BIPOC man in our community less than civil.
That last point is crucial. Are not board members aware that their action, for some, has reinforced images of the big Black boogieman intimidating a poor innocent white woman? Are they not aware that expelling what was then their only Black member has, for some Black people, invoked the trauma of thousands upon thousands of heinous murders and lynchings for perceived offenses? IMHO, if the Co-op Board and management think this issue has not left an indelible scar on the community, or that it will just go away, they are sadly mistaken. It is their duty, as community members committed to equality and justice, to set things right by meeting with Jones and BLMJC/WO, making amends, and commencing the healing process by the start of the New Year.