The Dutch National Ballet (Het Nationale Ballet) is performing Mozart’s Don Giovanni with full orchestra (the Holland Symphony) but no singing. The performance is in the beautiful new MuziekTheater at the curve in the Amstel River.

This reworking of the opera into dance three years ago was a critical and popular success. It is now part of the company's repertoire and is on through October and two days beyond.

Alice and I were able to get good seats for 47 euros the same day, a Saturday and picked the up by 7:30 pm for an 8:15 pm curtain.

The plot is clear enough from the opening death of Donna Anna's father at the hands of Don Giovanni to his closing retribution. The details are familiar to anyone who has seen the great opera on stage or in movie form. However, the plot details in the program on sale for 5 euros at the theater are only in Dutch. A plot outline is here (from the NY Opera Company/Columbia University) to follow every scene.

The dancing and music are energetic and riveting. To appreciate the sustained intensity of both over more than two hours, this should probably not be on your schedule for the first or second night after a transatlantic flight. Three sample scenes with music are available online: (1) the opening scene with fencers (one epee per dancer), in which Donna Anna's father, the Commendatore, is killed, (2) a classic Don Juan seduction (one of several) and (3) the Don's descent to a fiery hell when he is exposed and refuses to repent before the Commendatore. Click here for the sample scenes along with written commentary in English.

To cap it all, we had a fine fish dinner (the dory was especially good, and the matching wine was perfect) at the Sluizer, 41-45 Utrecht St., a ten-minute walk from the MuziekTheater.

Burma's "Malign Neglect"

The following was posted on Huffington Post: Burma's Criminal Malign Neglect.

Burma is making China look like a world leader on human rights. The troops in China are moving out in force to help Chinese eathquake victims, while in Burma the troops have blocked the way to relief from the devastation of the Nargis cyclone.

Now, 11 days since the cyclone, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the BBC today that the junta was guilty of "malign neglect" and that he would be amazed if 100,000 Burmese have not already died, with "hundreds of thousands" more at risk of starvation and disease.

He says that a natural disaster is turning into a "humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions". Afraid that epidemics may already be starting, relief agencies have thrown themselves into the logistics of the enormous challenge, especially in the Irrawaddy Delta, only to find soldiers blocking their way at the behest of the Burma's ailing xenophobic dictator, Senior General Than Shwe.

American Lobbyist for Myanmar

Myanmar is “a very bad government” Senator John McCain told Katie Couric of CBS on May 8. The  United States should ask China and other neighbors of Myanmar to “really put some pressure” on the junta to accept humanitarian aid.

However, two days later on May 10 at noon, Michael Isikoff of Newsweek broke the story about the connections to this government by the man managing the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn. - Doug Goodyear, CEO of DCI Group, which earned $3 million in 2007 lobbying for some of the world’s largest companies. The firm’s only foreign client was Myanmar, which paid $348,000 in 2002 to get the United States to "begin a dialogue of political reconciliation" with the regime.

DCI led a PR campaign for the junta, praising the country’s attempts to rein in the drug trade and attacking Bush administration "falsehoods" about rape and other abuses.

Goodyear told Newsweek that the junta's recent refusal to accept aid is "reprehensible." By 6 pm Saturday Goodyear had resigned - see YouTube post on the news.