Four former
GlaxoSmithKline employees will share up to $250m (£159m) after their evidence
helped US authorities secure
a record settlement with the UK
Greg Thorpe, Blair Hamrick, Thomas Gerahty and
Matthew Burke are in line to receive the payout under the Federal False Claims
Act, a US
The Banker on the other hand may have problem
keeping his Rheingold.
Wotan was not happy!
Sir Mervyn ordered Mr Agius to a meeting at the
Threadneedle Street headquarters of the Bank at 6pm on Monday. At the meeting,
he told Mr Agius that the chairman’s original offer to resign was not
sufficient and that the chief executive was in the line of fire.
It is believed that Sir Mervyn said that Mr
Diamond continuing in his position could be damaging to London
Sir Mervyn also appeared to suggest that he was
not only speaking on behalf of the Bank but also on behalf of the Financial
Services Authority and the Treasury as well. The Chancellor, George Osborne,
has always insisted he did not directly call for Mr Diamond to go.
By modern day standards we are still talking
about a lot of money!
The Guardian: Looting
Thanks to Intermezzo
we had a glimpse of the new Munich
July 05, 2012
Wagner, it would seem is as up to date as ever.
The
dark side of the gods: (it is sometimes easier if one take GODS in the Ring to
mean those in POWER. For the characters read
here.) In fact, the gods need not work at all, the Nibelungs work
almost all the time.
Disrespectful Wotan is
hardly revered unanimously, and even he acknowledges higher authorities. Erda knows
things he doesn't; his almost bureaucratic dominance derives solely from
treaties engraved in runes on his spear, treaties to which he is subservient.
Born liarsCharacters lie as it suits them. Events are initiated by
Wotan's spurious promise to the Giants to pay them by giving them Freia in
exchange for building Valhalla , a promise he
knows he cannot keep, as she is the indispensable symbol of love whose golden
apples keep the gods alive. His shady ally, Loge,
is defined as a double-dealing trickster. Brünnhilde breaks
her promise to her father to allow Siegmund to
be killed in combat. Mime makes
dissembling a veritable life's work, ably carried forward by his nephew, Hagen,
in Götterdämmerung.
Contemptuous
Brünnhilde
disobeys Wotan, and his grandson Siegfried destroys
his power. Mime, who raises Siegfried from infancy and even makes him toys, is
treated with disturbingly cruel contempt by the bumptious hero. Hagen, whom
Alberich sired via gold-empowered lust as a tool to retrieve the Ring for him,
mutters that if he succeeds he will keep it, not hand it over to his Nibelung
father.
Thieving & Misappropriation
……. misappropriation, of persons or of things, provides much of the plot machinery. First, Alberich plunders the Rhinegold, and afterward, theft of others' possessions, including the Ring, motivates action upon action.
……. misappropriation, of persons or of things, provides much of the plot machinery. First, Alberich plunders the Rhinegold, and afterward, theft of others' possessions, including the Ring, motivates action upon action.
Incest and other illicit sexThe teasing of Alberich by the Rhinemaidens which
leads to his abjuring love--love, not lust. The definitive heroine, Brünnhilde,
and her Valkyrie sisters are the offspring of an adulterous liaison between
Wotan and Erda; Wotan also illegitimately fathers the Wälsung twins
by a mortal. Sieglinde's infidelity is excoriated by marriage-goddess Fricka,
as is her violation with Siegmund of an even more basic taboo, incest. But
Wotan defends the twins ("…those two are in love") and, like most
audience members moved by the ardent love music, views both transgressions
kindly.
Homicidal
Fafner kills
his brother Fasolt,
the first victim of Alberich's curse, and we are off to the homicide races.
Hunding slays Siegmund, only to be destroyed by Wotan's contempt. Siegfried
kills Fafner, the Giant-turned-dragon, and then, after realizing that Mime is
trying to poison him, kills him as well. By the time the gods' destiny
climaxes, Hagen Valhalla 's proud-standing
stronghold") and all the gods die.
k
k
Greed, greed, greed!Finally, "coveting that which is your
neighbor's" is pretty much the whole raison d'être for the Ring story,
starting with Alberich's desire for the Rhinemaidens, then for the gold they
guard. Thereafter everybody seems to want what doesn't belong to him or her:
the Ring, a sword, a treasure, someone else's wife, sheer power.
Yet
in spite of Wagner's wholesale abandonment of the Decalogue, the bastion of
Western morality, Der Ring des Nibelungen generates explosive ethical and
metaphysical impact. He started with the absorption, fusion and reinvention of
myriad legendary sources, and layered Schopenhauer's philosophy upon
Feuerbach's. In Art and Climate Wagner wrote, "there is no
true freedom except that which is common to all mankind... The redeemer is
therefore love… starting with sexual love, [it] strides forward through love of
children, brothers and friends, to universal love of humanity." The emphasis is
his. Yet, some years later he wrote to Mathilde Wesendonck, "I can
conceive of only one salvation. It is Rest! ...The stilling of every
desire!"
Wagner once wrote to Röckel, "I have come now to realize
how much there is, owing to the whole weight of my poetic aim, that only
becomes clear through the music." He later described the discontinuity
between his "rationally formed ideas" and "the exquisite
unconsciousness of artistic creation… guided by wholly different, infinitely
more profound intuition."
Free Wagner:
The Bavarian State Opera
are to stream Andreas Kriegenburg's new production of Götterdämmerung live on their website on 15 July. Free of course.
On July 15, the Bavarian State Opera will present another full opera performance live and free on the website www.staatsoper.de with the transmission ofGötterdämmerung, the fourth installment of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. For the sixth time (after live-streams of Fidelio, L’elisir d’amore, Don Carlo, Eugen Onegin and I Capuleti e i Montecchi) opera lovers can enjoy another outstanding production from the Bavarian State Opera in Munich free and in full length.
The premiere of Götterdämmerung opened the Munich Opera Festival last weekend and is the conclusion of the new production of the Ring, which is being staged from February to June by Andreas Kriegenburg under the musical direction ofKent Nagano leading the Bavarian State Orchestra.
In Götterdämmerung the American tenor Stephen Gould as Siegfried, Wolfgang Koch as Alberich, Iain Paterson as Gunther and Nina Stemme as Brünnhilde will be appearing, amongst others, on the stage of the Bavarian State Opera.
The live transmission of Götterdämmerung is part of a pilot project by General Manager Nikolaus Bachler in presenting opera online. The only requirement is a broadband internet connection such as DSL, the newest version of the flash player and speakers. There is no charge to the viewer for using the live stream.
Richard Wagner
Götterdämmerung
5 P.M. CET – 11 A.M. EST – 8 A.M. PST
www.staatsoper.de
Intermezzo
Update: Just one of those Rings
The world of Götterdämmerung is the 21st century corporation, featuring an anonymous mass of business-suited Gibichungs in a flashy glass and steel edifice.
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