Don't irritate me, or I'll walk off the stage

After Roberto Alagna's opening aria in Aida, the audience in the gallery of Teatro alla Scala greeted him with boos. Then, very surprisingly, Radames, the role he played, stalked off the stage in response to the rude audience. Daniel Wakin from New York Times reported,

"In the history of operatic hissy fits, what happened at Teatro Alla Scala in Milan during 'Aida' on Sunday night was a bravura performance." (Dec. 13, 2006)

This is the first time we see a tenor walking angrily off the stage in the middle of the performance, and the stand-in was pushed on stage to finish the act without costumes. Can Alagna just leave the stage like that?

How I wish I were there!

I believe every artist deserves proper respect, but in the meantime, he has to show his professionalism and the ability to take catcalls and boos. The audience in the gallery of La Scala, called the "loggionisti", is notorious for their attitudes. These people are the opera aficinados who queue for cheap seats and always express their opinions freely during the performance. They could nod approvingly or shout and boo loudly if the performance is simply not as good as they expected, which is the case that happened on Sunday. Indeed, the loggionisti is rude, but it is their freedom to express their preference. If their actions are far too extreme, the opera house would certainly take good actions to stop them. I just cannot imagine the tenor suddenly stopped his singing, stared angrily at his audience, and then stormed off the stage.

This action is extremely childish and unprofessional. Even the loggionisti disapproved your singing, you still had the responsibility to finish the performance. After all, every audience in that theatre paid to hear your singing and see your performance. The conflict between the artist and the loggionisti is not new. Alagna is not the only one who was booed by the picky audience, Luciano Pavarotti and Renee Fleming were also victims at La Scala. In the infamous case, "Rome Walkout", Maria Callas simply cenceled her performance Norma after the first act at Rome Opera House in 1958. Many great opera singers encountered such disgrace, but none of them dared to leave the stage in the middle of the performance. In my opinion, once you step on that stage, you must do your best to play your role. You are responsible for the completion of the performance. This is the basic requirement for all actors and singers, and this is the respect for both the opera house and the audience.

How could Alagna ask for respect when he was not able to pay his? Of course, it is the loggionisti who started the conflict, but if Alagna completed his duty and presented a great performance, every opera critic and operagoer would speak for him. He would definitely secure his reputation as one of the greatest tenors. Sadly, he did not do so but quit the performance in the most irresponsible way. It is truly "such a shame" as those audience yelled. Due to this incident, Alagna is replaced by Walter Fraccaro, the Italian tenor who has sung in La Scala, the Met, and many major opera houses. I wonder if Alagna would ever have any chance to sing at La Scala agian.

Why would I care?

The son of the president of Taiwan is the most discussed person lately in Taiwan. Everyone wondered if he and his wife would come back to give brith to their first baby. The supporters of the current government urged them to come back because:

the president of Taiwan should not have an American grandson.

The opponents said this couple should come back because:

1. producing an American baby would secure their legitimacy to stay in the U.S, which is not what we want to see.
2. their expense in the States is actually the dirty money his parents stole form the country, but no one can confirm this information

Eventually, they were forced to come back, very reluctantly.

I am trying so hard not to make any comments on this news; however, the whole issue is just so stupid and insane. Whether you agree or not, I mut say their coming back does not and will not change anything. This lousy government of Taiwan still functions like a lame old man, the dear president and his corrupt wife still claim shamelessly their innocence, and politicians are all still blind and busy protecting their own rights. Their coming back is extremely useless to the development of Taiwan. I only agree with the opponents' idea that they should come back for the first lady's prosecution. This is the speculation that the son of the president, though not prosecuted for the first lady's fraud, should have known and in whatever ways assisted and provided his mother the required receipts for obtaining the secret funds. If this is true, than he must be ready for the possible coming trial against his family and himself. I firmly believe that every member of that family is more or less involved in this fraud.

The ridiculous part of this issue is on the supporters' point. This is a very bizarre and immature attitude, and sad to say so that most of the people in southern Taiwan strongly agree with this attitude. They have been educated by those who claim themselves as "the real Taiwanese" that being a Taiwanese must recognize Taiwan and live for Taiwan only. Sure, I agree with the notion of "recognizing Taiwan", where I am from, and "contributing to the future of Taiwan". However, this does not mean that I only live for Taiwan or I must support their idea to bulid a new nation-state. The most ridiculous is that those, who are "the real Taiwanese", are usually living somewhere other than Taiwan, having foreign properties, having offspring who hold foreign passports, or themselves foreigners. When people are ignorant, they are very easily influenced by stupid but passionate laguages. These supporters always say that everything must be about Taiwan. If the president has an American grandson, then this fact would contradicts to their political standing. They will naturally lose their supporters. This is why they urged this couple to come back for the baby with such a naive statement. After all, these "real Taiwanese" are only using this case to protect their own political rights.

Why would I care if this president has an American grandson? Why can't he have one? This is a free country, and his son and daughter in law are free to make any decisions of where to have this baby. Even though they came back to have this baby, they still could immigrate to the U.S. if they really want to, especially after having such a big amount of money stolen from the country. They are rich people! If he commited to his mother's fraud, he would still have to come back for the tiral, as an American.

I only care if he is tury innocent of the fraud, which I believe he isn't.

World AIDS Day & Free Hugs

Around forty million people are living with HIV throughout the world - and that number increases in every region every day. ... World AIDS Day, 1 December is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV and AIDS. This year, it's up to you, me and us to stop the spread of HIV and end prejudice.
World AIDS Day.

AIDS is not scary; AIDS is not dangerous. AIDS only becomes scary and dangerous when we are not aware of it. It is a disease that can be prevented, and I firmly believe that there will be an excellent cure for this disease someday.

In fact, I think AIDS gives us a good chance to reconsider our current human relationships. We seem to detach ourselves more from normal human interactions due to the proliferation of Internet. We stop talking to our neighbours or stop smiling at a beautiful baby. We have become so cold and distant. It is this cold and distant attitude that stops us from caring for other people. When we are not able to care for other people, how we could really fight against AIDS.

People with HIV are not dangerous, and they need our attention. This disease has long been mystified, and all we know is the negative parts of it. Who said AIDS is reserved for homosexuals only? Who said you will become HIV+ just because you have any contacts with another HIV+? Who said AIDS is a sin? No one ever gives any definite answers to these questions. All we know today is plainly rumors we heard somewhere.

I don't agree with the idea that AIDS is a sin. I agree many gay men were diagnosed as HIV+ in the eighties, but recent cases show that people with HIV are mostly from unsafe straight sex, inappropriate blood transfer, and the delivery of babies. I agree that AIDS is highly contagious, but it only happens when you know nothing about it. Every individual is responsible for his/her behaviours. Only when we have proper knowledge of AIDS and are responsible for our actions could we prevent it from spreading.

Educating the public about AIDS is what we need to do today. We should stop taking AIDS as a taboo, an unspeakable subject, a sin. We need to encourage people to learn about this disease, to communicate, and to open their hearts. Imagine how a person with HIV would feel. We can actually offer our aides to help him/her to recover in whatever ways. Instead of feeling sad and unsafe, with our help, he/she could build up a positive attitude towards this disease. Through our help to them, we learn more about AIDS, and we truly contribute to better humanity.

On 11/26, there is an action named "FREEHUGS FOR HIV/AIDS" in Taipei. The goal is to encourage 100 people to hug Mr. Chang (張亞輝), a HIV+ writer and the organizer of this campaign. To the end, he actually hugged more than 150 people that day. Living in this modernised society, we used to oppress our feelings because showing true feelings would be a weak action. Of course, we become so cold and distant so as to survive in this society. However, according to the reports of this campaign, some people said that hugging Mr. Chang, or even just showing support by smiling at him, had already made their day, and they would never forget this experience. Through this campaign, he helped introduce the notion that people with AIDS are just normal patients, and the hugging and warm responses show that humanity still exists. Showing humanity in fact brings more happiness than all other achieved success.

This campaign reminds me the freehugscampaign proposed by Juan Mann in Sydney. He said that this is the age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact. I totally agree with this, and I think it is more important to remind the public to seek again good human contact we used to have but lost now. If we can encourage people to reconstruct smooth and positive human interactions, the idea of uniting people to fight against HIV could easily be realised. We would start trusting people again, and we would care for people again. Along with good education programmes on AIDS, we definitely would end our prejudice against AIDS.