Hello classmates!!!

How are you? I hope all right.

Today I would speak about Youtube. I visit often this page. I have a lot of friends who share weblinks of Youtube in a very good page of Facebook  called Operoteca. Thanks to Operoteca I have learned a lot of opera. Its administrator is a Costa Rican/Croatian very cultivate. He calls Dino. He is a good friend who knows a lot of art in general! And he share videos about the last performances and the best singers of our times. I know in this page a lot of my favorite singers. And me and my friends post our most beloved Youtube videos in Operoteca. I meet one of my favorite baritones, Simon Keenlyside, for example. Dino presents me a very good video of Simon Keenlyside on his performance in the opera Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas. Keenlyside sings as Hamlet, he make really a performance of body art! In this version of Hamlet, the great  French soprano Natalie Dessay sings as Ofelia but… Ofelia don’t  drown in this case, she slit one’s writs while she sings her famous aria!  I remember that it was a very moving scene!! I discovered this opera thanks to Youtube. In another occasion, my friend Dino speak about a great Russian soprano called Maria Guleghina. She is a great singer!! When  I listened to her I knew that she will became one of my favorite sopranos. She has a dramatic strength very very moving!! Dino presents me my favorite version of Macbeth by Verdi with Guleghina and Lucic too. So… I think that Youtube is a very good tool to learn about a lot of differents topics and that is not only a link for watch humorous situations.

Greetings, Karina.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDXq65wMrxchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDXq65wMrxc

See you soon!

Hello guys!

How are you?! I hope all right!

Today I would write about the food… I don’t know really which is my favourite food.  I am not vegetarian but I don’t like so much eat meat. I am a little fed up with the meat and I don’t eat pork. I like some kind of fish… I love some salads, some soups and the salmon and the albacore. I like the Italian food, specially the lasagne, the ravioli, the gnocchi and the fettuccini and some plates of the Spanish cuisine as the paella and some speciality of French cuisine too. I never eat fast food! I hate it because that is very dangerous and I don’t like it fat-flavoured!!! I think that is disgusting! The meat with McDonald’s produce its hamburgers, for example, is a true poison for our health!  I think that I am very tired from the unhealthy food… I don’t like eat potato chips any more in my life! I discovered that I don’t like the fried food because I think that we live in a world so pollutioned that we mustn’t contaminate more our organism. But, I must recognize that I love the Coca-Cola! It’s absolutely wonderful! I like drink dark bear and I love the wine too! Specially, the rosé wine and the red wine… In occasions, when the weather is warm, I like to make fruit juice and by the nights, just before sleep, I love drink water.

Well, my friends…  see you soon!

I send you a great hug!!

Greetings, Karina!

Hello classmates!

How are you?!

I hope all right! Today I would like speak about ecology. I think that is a subject very important today because we live in a very pollutioned world! I afraid that all the things that we eat are a little dangerous!! The air that we respire is very contaminated! The Mobil telephone and some elements created by the new technologies emitted unhealthy radiations!   The plastic and a lot of materials are very toxic!  So… I think that the ecology is a problem more important that we suppose. I consider that we have a great responsibility in our hands. We must worry for the future of the trash, for example. We must divide the garbage for its recycling. I don’t understand the people that use the car to travel just a few distance! I think that we must walk or use the bike for traveling!  The chemical products are very prejudicial for our health so, I considered that we must prefer buy unpacked and natural foodstuffs.  I think that this ideas help to reduce our carbon footprint. I must say that I am very concerned about ecology, because I think that the world is agonizing and I see that any authority is really worried about this great problem of the humanity!

So… dear guys! We must concerned about our behaviors because the future depends a little of us!

I send you a great hug!

See you soon!

Karina. ;)

Hello guys!!! How are you?!! I hope all right! Today I will speak about a pet that my family have when I was child. Our dog was called Orson. Its name was the same of a pig of the Cartoons Garfield. I didn’t love so much this dog, because it was the dog of my parents and, generally, I don’t like so much the animals. Our dog was a boxer, this dog race it’s very special and the people prefer the boxer dogs because they are very care with the children. They are not very aggressive and they love plays. Our dog loved play! Orson loved jumping and running. He never was tired!... My brother played with him and my father gave him to walk around a park that was place near to our house. My mother loves him but she didn’t play with him…. But the story of my dog it a little sad, because… one day, Orson woke very sick. He vomited a lot and foamed a very strange with liquid. I remember that this day was very unhappy because we saw our dog agonizing. We took him to the vet and we waited a long time. The vet said that our dog had been poisoned with strychnine, a poison very strong and lethal. His death was really a mistery for us… But we think that our neighbors empoisoned Orson because they constantly complained about his barking… So… this is the sad story of our pet… I send you a hug! And see you soon! Greetings, Karina

Hello guys!!

How are you?!

I hope all right!

Today I will speak about an exhibition that I would like visit. I didn’t know this artist... I knew him thanks a friend who works in a museum. The artist name is Georges Rousse and he is french. I’m very interested on his work because he created a new dimension on the reality. Usually, he plays with the perspective of the architecture. In french this technic is called trompe l’oeil because the spectator eyes see a false reality. Georges Rousse has knowledges about Medicine, Mathematics, Architecture and Photography so I think that this mix of different disciplines contribute to create a very particular vision of the art.  His work plays with the capacities of the human eye. I think that Geourges Rousse destroits the sentence see to believe, because we can’t see the reality behind the fiction. This is a triomph of the imagination and the illusion!

I think that is very interesting his artistic proposal. Georges Rousse creates amazing effects with light, fire, binding materials, organic elements and others. He has worked in a lot of different countries and this year he has work in Santiago of Chile. In the MAC of Parque Forestal museum, we can see the exhibition of Georges Rousse and I would like to visit it!

Greetings!!!

Karina! ;)

Hy guys!

How are you?!
I hope all right!

Today our teacher would that we speak about the animé.

Really, I don’t like so much the anime, so I don’t know a lot about this subject... but I remember that when I was child, I like a lot a cartoon called Candy... I was very very young and I can’t remember very well its story but I can remember a blond teenager that traveled whit a little dog around the world. This maiden has not father but she was always happy... I remember that she has a rich friend, another blond maiden who has suffered an accident. Candy singed a song that all my classemates singed too! I can remember another cartoon but I can’t remember its name... This cartoon was starring by a little maiden who searched a flower of seven colors... she has a dog too... I don’t know... This cartoon were very old now and I was very little. Today, they are a lot of cartoons that I don’t know... My brother loves Dragon Ball Z but I don’t like it!

I hope you can’t help me with the name of the cartoon of the maiden who search the flower! Haha!!

A hug!!!

Hello guys!

How are you? I hope all right!

Today I will speak about a country I would like visit. 

I would like travel to Austria. I love the Austrian culture!! My favorite writers are Austrian like Thomas Bernhard, Karl Krauss, Hugo von Hoffmannsthal,  the great Stefan Zweig and my most prefered ‘Schrifftstellerin’ Elfriede Jelinek! I would like to meet her one day, because she’s musician too, I love her books and i would like to know the places in which characters live, like the Hotel Sacher Café, the Wienerwald, the forest of Vienna!! I love the hight culture of this country and all its past. In this country was born Mozart and my beloved Franz Schubert too! There are in Vienna a lot of beautiful parks (like the famous Prater) and great monuments. Its a dream for mee to know one day the Burgtheater and the Opera of Vienna, the Staatsoper. In Vienna was born a lot of the most important painters of the last century like Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Richard Gerstl and one of my favorite painters, Egon Schiele!... I imagine that Vienna is a good place to live in because is a very beautiful country and I like its language too, because I love the German!

Well, I think that today I have speak about a dream. I hope one day to travel to Austria!

A hug and good wishes, Karina! ;)

My ideal job

Hello Guys!!!

How are you?!  I hope all right!

Today I will to speak about my ideal job! Actually, I study  Theory and History of Art but I have also studied another  thinks, as Music -lyric sing and classical piano- and foreign languages . I like so much to work simultaneously in different areas! Until now, that has not been a problem for me. I have done it all the time in the past. I’m thinking of working as History of Art teacher but I’d like to work at the Teatro Municipal again too. I was very happy when I worked at the opera this year so I think that this work is my ideal job. But the negative aspect of this is that the work at theater is very hard! … and you can’t alternate this job with another occupation… I do not care whether the salary is not high if I’m happy with my job.... I’m thinking of working as piano teacher again the next year.  Three years ago, I worked in a music academy as piano teacher of little childrens... And when I finish my current career, I would like to work as teacher of History of Art. I think that all the disciplines I have studied will help me to became a good teacher of Aesthethic and History, because I know a lot of  different artistic dimensions so I think that I have a good comprenhension of art.

Greetins and a hug!

Karina

How are you? 

I hope all right!

Today I´ll speak about my blog. I think that I have a good experience because I have enjoyed this experience a lot. This is my first blog and I’m very happy to share it with you! I think that this blog is a very good way to know better your classmates. It’s very interesting to know the hobbies of your friends and it is a good opportunity to exchange opinions about them too! A blog is a very good tool because really help us to improve our English and, personally, I like to write it in our English class. But I would like to dynamize this blog experience anyway; I think that is a good idea to write a new post about a subject of our own choice. It’s very motivating to write   about our most funny life experiences. I felt very comfortable when I received commentaries about my favorite music, films, web pages, philosophical opinions about aesthetic, etc. etc. from my most beloved classmates. It was really a good experience and I would like to continue using my blog and share it with my all friends!´

Greetings, dear classmates!!!!

A big hug, Karina! ;)

Hello guys!

How are you? I hope all right!

Today I'll talk about my favorite subject.  I think that in the present I don’t have specially a favorite subject. But I remember a subject that changed my life. When I was student of Visual Arts in another university, I had my first subject of History of Art. My teacher was very good and motivating. She showed us the Art with a real passion! Her philosophical and aesthetical observations were very interesting and didactic! …and her classes were very funny! We watched movies to understand the aesthetics of some periods of the twentieth century, like Fellini, Visconti, Bergman, etc.... because she worried to teach some notions of cinema too! She is a very cultivate woman and we talked about music, cinema and visual arts for long time!  On the other hand, the life of the visual artist is very hard in this country! It’s very difficult to get a job to an artist, here! So... thanks to her lessons, I discovered that I preferred study the career of History of Art and now my teacher of History of Art is my best friend!

Greetings, my friends!  

"A darwinian theory of beauty" by Denis Dutton.

Hello Guys!

Today, we must talk about the beauty. So, we will speak about Denis Dutton, who was a great american phlisopher of art. In the video of the web site http://www.ted.com we can see the conference  entitled:  "A Darwinian Theory of Beauty". Dutton attempts to show what's beauty. The philosopher says that the beauty is manifested in several varieties, there is the artistic beauty, the natural beauty, the human beauty, etc. The most solid theory of the beauty comes from  the mind of a scientist: Charles Darwin. We can explain the nature of beauty across the evolution theory. Dutton says there are two variants of this theory. The first: The natural selection,which includes a liking for certain foods and the sexual pleasure; and the second, called 'sexual selection',which aims to reproduction. The individuals attract the opposite sex through the magnetism of the beauty. Dutton says that we can see that in the exemple of the male peacocks feathers, who opens his tail to attract the female peacock. Someone may think that artistic beauty is a cultural product, Dutton speculates, but he says that this is wrong because, he says that the artistic beauty has the same purpose as peacock feathers. So, he talk about the very ancient hand ax of the prehistoric men. The hand ax was a teardrop-shaped stone but this weapon was not used to hunt animals; the hand ax was the first work of art of the human been! Likeness of peacock tail, the hand ax was made for attract attention to the others. A beautiful hand ax showed the talents of the artist who manufactured it. And this is the reason which we admire, for exemple, a virtuous pianist. Beauty lies in the well crafted things, like the big tail of the peacock. 

At the end of the conference, Dutton says that beauty is a virtue of the intelligent capabilities and he adds that the beauty is a product of the rich emotional lives.

One of my favorite artists: the Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek!

Hello Guys!

How are you?!

It's very difficult for me to choose just one artist, because I love a lot of them!

But... today I woud like to talk you about my favorite writer. She is called Elfriede Jelinek. She was born in Steiermark, Austria. Her mother was a catholic Austrian woman  and her father was a Czech Jew who collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War. Elfriede loved so much her father and when  she was child, her father went mad (he couldn't stand the feeling of guilt for having worked with the Nazis) and  he died absolutly demented... Elfriede has not supported it and  she fell into a deep depression. Her mother, who had a very strong character, forced her child to study music at the conservatory. So, Elfriede studied cello, violin, flute, organ and music composition.  But Elfriede wasn't happy because the musical discipline in Austria is very hard and she began to develop a love of literature. At the age of 22, she wrote her first book, called Lisas Schatten (Lisa's Shadows). She married with the German journalist but Elfriede's mother lived with them in the same house. The relationship with her mother was very complex and Elfriede wrote its story in her most famous novel called 'The Pianist'. In 2001, Haneke adapt to a movie this roman where Isabelle Huppert plays the role of the protagonist, the pianist Erika Kohut and Annie Girardot plays the character of the piano teachers mother.

Elfriede Jelinek suffers from Asperger's syndrome. She's married but her husband lives in Germany and she lives alone in Austria. 

Elfriede Jelinek is my favorite writer because she has a poetic and musical language but, at the same time, her writing is very hard! She mixes the most beautiful and classical culture with the hardness of porn. She's a very subversive and political writer. In Austria, she was censored by the rightist politician Gëorg Haider, who hung posters on the street who said: Lieben Sie Elfriede Jelinek oder Kunst und Kultur?" ("Do you want art and culture or Elfriede Jelinek?")

 In 2004, Elfriede Jelinek received the Nobel Prize for Literature. I love her kitsch and ironic aesthetic!! Elfriede Jelinek, as Thomas Bernhard, belongs to the misanthropes current. I think that she's a very important artist because she has changed the concept of dramaturgy, she has created a new style of theather and she also composed an opera! For me, Elfriede Jelinek is a genius! 

Pipo's post correction....

Hello guys!

Today, i want to talk about one of my favorites topics worldwide and countless times (1)hahaha.. i'm going to talk about my favorite film, it's really hard (2) to talk about it, becouse (3)i like too many movies and series, but this movie in particulary(4), capture my attention.When i saw it for the very first time. Fight Club, it's an American Film made in 1999, based on the 1996 novel with the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. This film was directed by David Fincher (also director of (5)Seven, and The curious case of Benjamin Button, among others). and the stars on it are(6), Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, "everyman", who is discontented with his job, mmm... or the sistematic-job, "with a collar in your neck". Well, he creates a "Fight Club", a place where you fight for all your problems. eventually this club became a "brotherhood". Norton creates the club with a parner, Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), and becomes embroiled in a relationship with him, Norton and a dissolute women, Marla Singer, played by Helena Bonham Carter. I love this movie, because the plot is very intense and realistic. Norton have too many psychological problems, but in the film. he is a "normal guy", as we are. His angry and nostalgic for a better place.. it's part of me, well, in my opinion. The ending, the climax... are the best!! the violence and destruction, is a perfect metaphor for the life itself.

Hope you like this post, and i (7) wish you will  see this movie, its a classic for the new century!

Cheers!

Perhaps you can said:

1. for the umpteenth time

2.difficult

3.because

4.'particularly'  or 'in particular'

5.The same director of...

6.The stars of this film...

7.In English, the singular first-person pronoun, "I", is capitalized

Two of my favorite photos!

Hy guys!

How are you?

On this occasion, we must speak about only one photo but I would like to show you two pictures of my participation in the opera Parsifal at the Teatro Municipal in May of this year. It was a great experience because I learned a lot, I met three of my best friends but above all, we had a true ‘maestro’, the  argentinian régisseur Robert Oswald. He conveyed the philosophical and musical charm of the Wagnerian world.

We live a really special artistic experience on stage! We had played two roles in the second act of the opera. At the first time, we played the rol of the cursed souls who can not rest in peace and live at the magician Klingsor's garden. Our characters were very mysterious and charming because the music of Wagner is sublime!

After that, we had to move quickly our costume for played the role of Flower Maidens who dance and sing to seduce Parsifal! This scene was very subtlety, very femenine and very well made thanks to the sensitive stage direction by Oswald. 

Me and my artist friends dressed as Flower Maidens

... In the first photo that I show us here, I appear with my inseparable friends artists. In this case, we are dressed as Flower Maidens and we wear blond wigs and suits of undines. This photo was taken by another friend called Lissette.

We as Flower Maidens on stage with Zvetan Michailov as Parsifal. Photo: Patricio Melo. 

The second photo can you see here was taken by Patricio Melo, the official photographer of the Municipal Theatre and shows us the scene of the Flower-Maidens that we played during the rehearsal for the opera.

My favorite film... The Piano Teacher by Michael Haneke!

Hello guys!
How are you?!

I will tell you why La Pianiste by Michael Haneke is my favourite film... Erika Kohut is 40 years old and she is a piano teacher who works at Vienna Conservatory. Erika lives with her old mother. The mother wants her daughter remains all her life with her. She has the control of the Erika’s life.  But the strictness of musical discipline and  the insistent surveillance mother repress to Erika who seeks a release in the sex. Erika has a piano student who falls in love for her, but she tortures him.  

I love this film because the protagonist is Isabelle Huppert. She is absolutly my favourite actress!! Usually, Isabelle Huppert  works in intellectual films and she was the muse of Claude Chabrol.  Recently she has worked in the film "Amour" also by Michael  Haneke…  I think that in the character of Erika Kohut, Isabelle Huppert speaks with her  eyes. Through her expression we can see the character's thoughts!!  I think that she is wonderful! ...Annie Girardot plays the character  of the mother. Girardot was a great actress but, unfortunatelly,  she’s dead the last year.

Michael Haneke is my favourite director.  He is from Austria. I think that he is a genius! He has created a new conception of cinema, a new language because he shows another dimension of things, of the psychology characters. He shows the real disgrace of humanity. He reveals through his films the banality of everyday life. Michael Haneke is not just a film director, is a philosopher!

My favorite web site!

Hello guys!

How are you?!

I’ll present you my favorite internet site. I visit this site regularly because I am its creator. This facebook page is a kind of homage to a Yugoslavian artist that I admire. Her name is Marina Abramovic and she’s a performance artist. I think that she has changed the conception of performance art. She’s very special! Her hypnotic character is really impressive! In 2010 she did a retrospective of his work at MoMA. And one of her last work is a film entitled “The Artist is Present”. My site gets visitors from all over the world and I knew personal friends of the artist and artists who have worked with her through this Facebook page! Marina Abramovic is an artist very important to me because through her I decided to study Visual Arts and Art History. 

This is the link of my page: 

http://es-es.facebook.com/pages/Marina-Abramovic/73591334407

(Post Data ... I would ask one of my colleagues how I can upload blog comments!! Please!!! I can’t do it!)

Maria Callas, my most beloved singer!

I'd like to tell you a little about my favorite singer, Maria Callas.  She was born in 1923 in New York but she was Greek and her real name was Cecilia Sofía Anna Maria Kalogeropoulos.
I met her through a television documentary of Film & Arts Channel when I was 15 years old.
I remember that her expressive eyes, the sincerity of her movements on stage, her ductile voice and her extraordinary acting ability surprised me. Her voice, her body and her face changed according to the character she played. She cold be an angel but she could be a demon too on stage!
She herself lived and died as if she had been an operatic character. She was a very ugly child and her mother didn't loves her, she became the most famous -and the best- opera singer of the world and then she lost her voice; she was the mother of a dead child and then she died for love and loneliness at 53 years old. She had a very sad life and therefore she acquired the necessary sensibility  to play tragic heroins. She didn't have especially a beautiful voice, she wasn't a perfect singer but she was able to understand the essence of the opera art and made it part of her own life.
I can say that Maria Callas changed a little my life, because I decided to study opera sing when I met her and I have the habit of listening to her music daily. Besides, my own sing teacher was student of Callas at the Juilliard's High School. I love absolutely Maria Callas because her art has a purely feminine force and she could mix the beauty with the ferocity of human feelings.
She has changed the concept of the Opera.
Some people divide the history of opera in two parts: AC and DC, before and after Callas.



Here, you can listen to the aria called Tu che le vanità of the opera Don Carlo by Giuseppe Verdi in Callas Concert at Covent Garden in 1962.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQfmSu7G6Ls

...A little about me...

Hello people!

Opera Simon Boccanegra. Teatro Municipal of Santiago 2011

I'll present myself. My name is Karina Mih. I was born in Santiago. I have studied German translate and French. And I have studied lyric sing and classical piano too. I’m mezzo and I have studied with a student of Maria Callas. Usually, I do German and French class and I have worked as piano teacher in a music academy called Promúsica. I teached classical piano to little childs. In 2011, I worked at the opera Simon Boccanegra in Teatro Municipal of Santiago and was great because I have the chance to know famous singers and a very celebrated régisseur. I’ll never forget this experience because I lerned a lot!  Now, I study History of Art at the Universidad de Chile.