14 書香人生 B O O K S & R E V I E W S SUNDAY, AUGUST 1, 2010 • TAIPEI TIMES Softcover: Singapore Classical DVDs The great divide: By Bradley Winterton Can Asia and the Staff Reporter hostakovich’s Lady filmed staged version that was the Macbeth of Mtsensk is fast problem. But even musically it often US work together? becoming appreciated sounded harsh and unlovely. as one of the great 20th This DVD, therefore, is of only With past mistakes now compounded by century operas. “Lady historic interest. It contains none SMacbeth” is shorthand for a woman of that Mozartean magic necessary the economic crisis, America’s role in the killer (even though Lady Macbeth for any real recommendation. That region is due for a makeover in Shakespeare never actually kills kind of magic, and much more, can anyone). This story of a frustrated be found on the superb film with wife who experiences cruel male Herman Prey, Mirella Freni, Kiri By J. Michael Cole oppression and rape, and takes her Ti Kanawa and (again) Dietrich Staff Reporter revenge via a lover and some poison, Fisher-Dieskau (DGM 073 4034), LADY MACBETH OF was a major success in Moscow reviewed in the Taipei Times on he global economic crisis, MTSENSK until Stalin attended a performance, Aug. 4, 2005. added to missteps by the Publication Notes Shostakovich hidden behind a curtain, and, his The VAI item I was most T administration of former puritanism scandalized and possibly impressed by recently was a president George W. Bush, widened Maggio Musicale Fiorentino also fearing murderous plots against performance of Turandot with the the space between the US and Asia ARTHAUS 101387 himself, had it closed down the fol- great Franco Corelli in the role of in a process that could have far lowing morning. Calaf. It’s taken from an Italian reaching implications economically This pair of DVDs from Florence, telecast in 1958, and once again and politically, Simon Tay argues in Italy, issued last year, makes a strong is in black-and-white with mono a timely new book. showing. The general atmosphere of sound. But I found it one of the most While the re-emergence of the opera comprises boredom, both absorbing versions of this opera I’ve China as a regional power, and sexual and in the workplace, leading ever watched. There’s something the attendant US malaise, figure to periodic outbursts of brutality muted about it — no over-the-top prominently in Asia Alone, the and sadism. The set is entirely of histrionics for Nessum Dorma, seeds of the growing divide between unpolished wood and must have cost for instance — and Corelli reveals Washington and Asia, Tay tells a great deal to build. It therefore himself not as just a big voice but as us, were actually sown during the has to suffice for the musically rich a genuine and sensitive artist. This Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-1998. outdoor scene in the prison camp is backed up by a stage production What Tay refers to as the “Asian which ends the opera as well, with that’s tremendously engaging, giving surrender” is epitomized by then- paper snow effective enough in the a dreamlike impression of old Beijing IMF president Michel Camdessus Asia Alone: The Dangerous circumstances. that amply supports the Emperor’s “standing imperiously, arms folded,” There has been some damning description of it as a world of while Indonesian president Suharto Post-Crisis Divide From America by faint praise of this set of DVDs menace and cruelty that Calaf should signed harsh IMF prescriptions to By Simon S.C. Tay on the Internet, but I found it simply walk away from. Yet this save his country’s economy. At the consistently enjoyable. Jeanne- effect is achieved only by elaborate APEC summit in Kuala Lumpur the 206 pages Michele Charbonnet is outstanding make-up, close-ups, masks, dance following year, then-vice president Al John Wiley & Sons as Katerina, and Sergej Kunaev and painted scenery — scenery that’s Gore “surprised” his audience during convincingly undeterred as Sergei. evocative even in monochrome. a dinner for business leaders by James Conlon conducts the Somehow I found this Turandot calling for greater democracy in Asia orchestra and chorus of the Maggio uniquely haunting. The overwhelming rather than delivering the expected has regained faith in its economic Musicale Fiorentino. impression is of sadness — at the pro-business slogans. power, will be able to accomplish Another version of this opera, self-imposed virginal loneliness of What Camdessus and Gore this task, Tay argues. A better LE NOZZE DI FIGARO with Nadine Secunde and Christo- Turandot herself, which in turn leads managed to accomplish, the author understanding of Asian customs, Mozart pher Ventris, was reviewed in the to the suicide of the equally lonely claims, is to alienate a community mores, culture and history among Taipei Times on Jan. 13, 2005 (EMI and isolated Liu. Even Ping, Pang and of nations that was slowly beginning Americans will also be necessary to Evans, Guden, Lear 5 99730 9). It had stronger contrasts, Pong are no longer absurd, comic to come together, an insult that allow policymakers to sell such a VAI 4519 with more farce, than this Italian figures here, but three men who are in the following decade would be policy of engagement to the public, production, and seemed at the time also trapped in the princess’s icy, self- exacerbated by Bush’s “arrogance” which otherwise could adopt a hard to better. This new version mutilating world, and long to escape and poor showing on human rights xenophobic — or rather sino-phobic has its own distinctive character from it. Corelli’s challenging all this and US exceptionalism during the — view that could affect the political nonetheless. seems to isolate him as well, making financial crisis, where it avoided the leaders who are voted into office. Video Artists International (VAI) him a lonely figure trying to change very prescriptions imposed by the Similarly, fears of China’s rise will in the US has a justified reputation an entire world, and he resembles Washington-based IMF in 1997-1998. only be assuaged if Beijing restrains for unearthing historic recordings Wagner’s Lohengrin more than As regional organizations like nationalistic fervor among its people and then presenting them in DVD anyone else in Puccini. This isolation APEC and ASEAN came into being, and engages the US in a constructive format with cleaned-up sound seems his whole character, so much a sense that Asia, with the Chinese manner on such issues as global and new subtitles. They have just so that the happy ending feels slightly powerhouse at its center, could act warming, nuclear non-proliferation, released a Nozze di Figaro from the wrong, and you are set wondering yet more independently — or beyond regional security and economic Salzburg Festival of 1963, but this again what psychological blockage that, isolate itself from the rest of stability. There is no question that is if anything overshadowed by an contributed to Puccini’s inability to the world, in a feat of self-sufficiency a “go-it-alone” attitude on China’s even older item in their catalogue. finish the opera. — has slowly emerged. Spurred by part, along with regional economies Figaro first though. Why, with The ever-serious and subdued nationalism (mostly in China), this that could choose to bandwagon on so very many versions of this opera Corelli is the main attraction, but development was compounded by Beijing’s rise and gang up against available on DVD, should anyone Lucille Udovich as Turandot is the global economic crisis, which the US, would be detrimental to want one in black-and-white with strong too, though in no way his gave rise to finger pointing, with addressing many of the region’s mono sound? The answer is that equal. The production also boasts the US more often than not at the problems, old and emerging. On it preserves the performances of Plinio Clabassi in the small role receiving end. economics alone, China stands to artists much praised in their day. of Timur, Calaf’s aged father, and Tay warns us that if that trend lose tremendously if its policies This one has Geraint Evans as every note he sings is a pleasure. were to continue, the US could find feed into US fears and result in Figaro, Evelyn Lear as Cherubino, The exceptionally atmospheric stage itself excluded from a region that is protectionist policies in Washington. Hilde Guden as the Countess, production, almost opiated, and increasingly seen as both the global Despite its strong economic showing, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as the expressive of a terrible fatalism, was engine for growth and a source of the fact remains that China will for Count and Graziella Sciutti as by Mario Lanfranchi. conflict. Such an outcome, he argues, many years continue to be an export- TURANDOT Susanna. Lorin Maazel conducts the This, while not perhaps being is undesirable, as the US remains the driven economy whose domestic Puccini Vienna Philharmonic. anyone’s Turandot of choice, could greatest guarantor of the stability and consumption is insufficient to spur For some reason, though, I found be many people’s second, back-up security that contributed to Asia’s economic growth. Corelli, Udovich, Mattioli this DVD lackluster. It may have version. I for one couldn’t stop rise in the first place. Furthermore, In sum, the prescriptions VAI 4300 been the fact that it was a clumsily watching it. as ASEAN has yet to prove its mettle outlined in the book apply as much as an effective guarantor in terms of to the US as they do to China, conflict resolution and a forum for and Singapore-based Tay is well problem solving, and with a power positioned to make them. imbalance within the region probably The picture that emerges from unseen elsewhere, no single country, Asia Alone is one where despite Hardcover: US let alone multilateral body, has the its unprecedented gravitas, Asia capacity to fill the vacuum that remains a loosely knit collection would be created by a US retreat. of disparate states whose future Given lingering historical tensions, direction will likely be contingent on such as those between Japan and how the US and the major regional When there are no more fish in the sea China, or India and China, the region players, namely China, Japan and would face great uncertainty, if not India, address the challenge of a Poop-eating, air-breathing fish may save endangered cod, says Paul Greenberg instability, if the pacifying effect reordered context in the wake of of US engagement were suddenly the global financial crisis. Greater By Alix Greenwald scientific information, yet reads like a a Gel-Pak of cocaine in a crate full of to disappear. As such, replacing intra-regional cooperation, where Bloomberg combination of memoir, mystery and Publication Notes tilapia filets, can a drug-sniffing dog find one hegemon with another — in all the players are treated as equals Wearing a borrowed pair of orange adventure novel with a dash of Greek it? Nope.” other words, substituting the US rather than being lorded over by a rubber overalls and thick wool socks, drama and science fiction thrown in. When it comes to eating animals, for China — is not an option for the regional hegemon, and continued, Paul Greenberg was an unwitting In a quest to find an alternative to the people have focused mainly on four foreseeable future. albeit more restrained, engagement participant in a shady salmon deal on cod, which has a perilously declining mammals — pigs, sheep, goats and This does not mean, however, that by the US, could be what’s required the Yukon River. population, Greenberg travels to the city cattle — and four birds — chickens, the key to success in Asia lies in a to secure the future of a region that In an attempt to conserve the endan- of Can Tho in Vietnam. There he meets turkeys, ducks and geese. According to return to the past. In fact, Tay states, remains rife with deep historical gered Alaskan king salmon, the state Vo Thanh Khon of the aquaculture anthropologists, even cavemen knew that the global financial downturn, which scars, tremendous developmental had declared a “subsistence opening” company Bianfishco, who farms tra, a when choosing animals to domesticate, led to a relative decline in power for inequality, and uncertainty. — meaning that fish caught could only prospective replacement fish. they should pick varieties that met the US vis-a-vis Asia, has permanently Tay’s book says little about the be used for personal consumption. One of the most productive food certain criteria such as hardiness and the altered the global architecture, and Taiwan question — a blind spot, After Greenberg’s Yupik Eskimo fish, tra didn’t have the best reputation ability to breed easily. there is no going back to the status given the central role the country hosts inadvertently caught a king when they were introduced to European Yet in the 1960s, humans decided quo ante. The principal implication plays in Sino-US relations — and salmon, they pulled their tiny metal skiff diners. Greenberg’s translator told him that “any species could and should of this transformation is that the US was written before the Economic up to a black oil tanker and banged on this joke: be tamed,” Greenberg writes. Like will have to adopt a more multilateral Cooperation Framework Agreement the hull. Out came “a dude” who gave Question: “How do you tell a farmed cod, sea bass were a poor choice approach to Asia, one in which (ECFA) between Taiwan and China them 13.6kg of frozen chicken and beef fish from a wild fish?” for farming, failing every one of the it learns how to cooperate rather was signed. That said, it provides a from Safeway in exchange for their Answer: “The farmed fish is cross- criteria for domestication. than dictate — a role that could useful overview of the complexities 13.6kg of freshly caught king salmon. eyed from staring up at the hole in the Cue Israeli endocrinologist Yonathan take Washington years to become arising from Asia’s emergence and In Four Fish: The Future of the Last outhouse.” Four Fish: The Future of the Last Zohar, who tells Greenberg he is “like accustomed to, though Tay already manages to do so in a format that, Wild Food, Greenberg uses this unfair Tra eat poop, or more gently, Wild Food ob-gyn for fish.” Zohar is responsible gives the Obama administration good despite its focus on economics, is trade to illustrate the complicated plight “decaying organic matter.” They can for synthesizing a polymer-based sphere By Paul Greenberg marks in that regard. both engaging and informative. of the king salmon, which are dependent also breathe air. Tra are fine for “not- with a hormone that is slowly released Rather than step back and lick One glaring historical mistake on the Yupik people for conservation just so-discerning palates,” as Greenberg 284 pages into the bloodstream to make sea bass its wounds, the US must be willing is a reference to al-Qaeda leader as the Yupik economy relies on them. says, but they don’t measure up to cod Penguin Press spawn in captivity, which they don’t to engage Asia at many levels and Osama bin Laden living and studying He provides a detailed examination in texture. normally do. depart from the narrowly focused in the US “for many years” before of the fishing industry in sections about Tilapia, on the other hand, have the Zohar is just one of many quirky relationship that characterized the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. salmon, sea bass, cod and tuna. He same “mouth feel” as cod and breed characters Greenberg uses in Four the Bush era, where Washington’s Despite Tay’s claim, bin Laden is travels the globe exploring not only like rabbits, so they are an even better Native to Africa, the increasingly Fish to walk you through the modern Asia policy was almost exclusively only known to have visited the US what has been done wrong, but also replacement. They are what humans popular and easily farmed tilapia spread seafood dilemma. He guides you toward centered on the “war on terrorism.” for two weeks in 1979, with his wife, where to go from here. should have chosen instead of cod as to Latin America, where Greenberg is told commonsense food choices while Only a self-confident US, one that is while seeking medical treatment for Greenberg, a freelance writer, tells the everyday fish used in foods like the they got caught up in the drug trade. entertaining you with stories of fish strong on the home front and that one of their sons. a story that is full of historical and McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish. A fish farmer explains, “If you put porn, Sea-Monkeys and dynamite.