Modernism

I barely knew who Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was when I went with who knows who to see the premiere of Syberberg's 1982 film version of Wagner's 1882 opera Parsifal at Victoria's Oak Bay Theatre. The person I went with knew who he was, as did the 100 or so gathered; big personalities, young and old, pulling people towards them, as if the lobby were a trade show and anyone who didn't know anything of Wagner's importance was a customer.

I mentioned earlier what it kick it was to find Syberberg's once hard to find, not to mention very expensive DVD of Parsifal at a thrift store ($1). But looking at the cover recently, I thought, That shape looks like another holy grail, this one of a modernist art that left Europe for North America at the beginning of the 20th century -- Duchamp's Fountain (1917). Of course I didn't much about Duchamp either, short of X.J. Kennedy's poem.