Last day of March

Our son Matt wins the contest to find a mnemonic for Walter Reed: a wooden replica of a tiny bird: a wren mimic (WReNMiMiC).

David slept quite a bit until late afternoon, received blood and plasma through his port, and hosted a raft of doctors and med students and nurses. Dr. Wanko expects him to start the downhill part of this chemo cycle and hit bottom in about two weeks. They will decide on further treatment when they get the final lab results on the bone marrow biopsy.

 In other news, today it finally felt like I had driven seven hours south of Lexington. Sunny, blue skies, high 64°. I walked to the CVS in Bethesda center; it felt wonderful to leave my coat at home. Unfortunately, just as the weather turns, David is confined to the unit, since he is getting neutropenic, i.e. possessing an abnormally low white blood cell count and thus susceptible to infection. The chemo is killing off the leukemic white blood cells, but also every other type, hence the intravenous blood transfusions, and antibiotic, anti-fungal, and anti-viral medication.

Peaceful Sabbath

Peter, Xiomara, and 11 month-old Andrew drove down to Bethesda from the Bronx Saturday evening. We all visited David Sunday morning, then went to the ward (Mormon congregation) for young single adults in Chevy Chase, MD. Jim and I introduced David by proxy to the congregation during the sacrament meeting. I was deeply touched by our reception, as members gathered around us, offering friendship and support. Many young Mormon singles are in training at Walter Reed Medical Center or work and live nearby. David will get quite a few visitors this week. By the time we arrived at his room after church, three of them were sitting on his couch chatting and a fourth year medical student dropped by later.

David looks good, is not in pain, and laughs and talks freely. His anti-nausea medication works well. He enjoyed Andrew’s visit, although Andrew stayed near his mother and kept a safe four to six feet away. The subject heading of a recent family email by Army Specialist Johnston read “Having leukemia in the army does have its positives”. Inside were two selfies of the bearded Army medic and this further commentary: “Unfortunately, I just took a massive hit of chemotherapy, which may or may not cause all good things to end in this department.”

Rainy Saturday

Another quiet day at Walter Reed. My brother Steve, Jim, and I spent a few hours with David. He’s doing well and enjoyed some phone conversations. Last night Jim noticed that the hefty machine that registers blood pressure and temperature was pulling away from the wall. He helped detach it and position it on the floor. It had never been attached to a stud and would have fallen right onto the bed soon. Today they moved David to a room down the hall to avoid the plaster dust. His new room is nearer the end of the building, with a bigger couch, two chairs, and a nicer view.

Speaking of views, from the hallway window near the fifth floor elevator, I can see the LDS Washington Temple, where Jim and I were married 35 years ago. The white and gold spires rise above the trees. It’s especially lovely at night.

Day Three at WRMMC

Another boring day (oh how I love boring days in a military hospital) at Walter Reed. David had a port installed in his chest early this morning, so that the chemo drugs can be delivered into the superior vena cava, the vein that goes directly to the heart. This sounds alarming, but this large vein can handle the chemo much better than the smaller wrist veins.

There was a rumor that the chemo would start late morning, but it actually got going at 4:30 p.m. For those of you with a score card, he will receive daunorubicin over 10-15 minutes, once a day for 3 days. At the same time he is receiving cytarabine continuously for 7 days.

He’s in excellent spirits right now. He’s only been back from Korea for 53 hours, so his sleep cycles are still off. We had a videochat with Peter, Matt, and Sam, with cameos by Xiomara and wee baby Andrew, who just turned 11 months old on Tuesday.

Prize to whomever comes up with a word that uses WRMMC, in that order. Extra points for English. Linguists are eligible to enter.

Day Two at Walter Reed Military Medical Center Bethesda

I didn’t have web access at Walter Reed today, so I’m starting this blog by pasting Jim’s email update here:

David had a wonderfully boring day today. He slept well last night. We were with him all day as he and the medical staff prepared for what is to come. They did another bone marrow biopsy (the first was in Korea), and measured everything about him in order to have a baseline before the start of chemo. He had breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He took a nap in the afternoon. He felt well all day, though he spent most of his time lying down and moved slowly when he was on his feet. At 6:30 p.m. we took a walk around the hospital and found a Subway and had supper.

David has two main doctors (Dr. Sam Wanko, an oncologist, and Dr. Eric Schofield, a hematologist), an internal medicine doctor (Dr. Michael McMahon), and a resident (Dr. Ben Vipler). Also, each shift has a nurse, a charge nurse, and a tech. They have preliminary results of today’s biopsy, confirming the Korea finding that the cancer is acute myeloid leukemia (AML). There is still more to know from both biopsies that could be quite important, but this will not be known for one to two more weeks. They know enough to begin chemo.

Tomorrow morning a port will be installed to give direct access to the superior vena cava vein near the heart, and then chemo will begin. It will continue daily for seven days.

Die Walküre

Jim and I recently saw the Metropolitan Opera high definition cinecast of Die Walküre, the second of the four Der Ring des Nebelungen. It touched me deeply and unexpectedly. I originally decided to go on the strength of the other HD operas we’ve seen. I’ve never been interested in Wagner, although I have always loved his “Pilgrims’ Chorus”. The length of each opera was daunting and off-putting. However, the movie, Wagner’s Dream,  which chronicled the production of the recent Met Ring cycle, piqued my interest.

I was totally unprepared for the emotional experience I had during Die Walküre. There were no hummable tunes, I understood very little of the German and was aware that the subtitles didn’t offer a complete script. Yet, I was swept away and mesmerized. The four and a half hours seemed short.

One reason for the peak experience was the skill of the acting. Perhaps because I couldn’t follow all of the lyrics I was keyed into the facial and bodily expressions of emotional and intent. I especially appreciated Wotan, but I was drawn in by all the characters: Siegmund, Sieglinde, Hunding, and Fricka.

But I think, even more than the acting, the themes and emotions captured my imagination. The interactions: between husband and wife, father and daughter, lovers, and enemies were so compelling. They touched chords deep within me and I discovered that I yearn to explore those primal emotions.

I’m intrigued with the concept of myth describing the human condition. I enjoy thinking about how the Ring cycle compares to biblical accounts and how George Lukas must have been influenced by Wagner and the original Norse myths themselves.

Some religious parallels I saw: Siegmund is like Adam. He’s imperfect and fallen and unable to save the world. Siegfried, born of an outcast mother, but protected by Brunnhilde, is a savior figure. Fricka is justice, Brunnhilde mercy.

Verdi's Don Carlo

On Saturday, December 11, the Metropolitan Opera will offer a live cinecast of its current production, Verdi's Don Carlo. Anthony Tommasini, opera critic of the New York Times gave the production a good review:

Verdi's Don Carlo is the "Hamlet" of Italian opera. Every production of this
profound and challenging work is a major venture for an opera company. The
Metropolitan Opera has to be pleased, over all, with its new
staging...which...earned an enthusiastic ovation.
The cast is mostly
excellent...Yannick Nezet-Seguin, the 35-year-old Canadian conductor, designated
to become the music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra...drew a richly
textured, inexorably paced and vividly characterized account of Verdi's epic
score from the great Met orchestra...he is a born communicator who brought
youthful passion and precocious insight to his work.
If there is nothing
very daring about the production, it is alive with striking images. The ominous
monastery of San Yuste in Spain is framed by looming black walls with rows of
square windows through which crisscrossing shafts of sunlight shine. The scene
in the public square…is played before an ornate gold church and culminates with
the glimpse of bodies on a flaming pyre in the background.

Don Carlo is based on a dramatic poem by Frederich Schiller and which is based very loosely on the history of King Philip II of Spain. Don Carlo, the young and impetuous son of Phillip, visits France and meets his betrothed, Elisabeth, the daughter of Henry II of France, in a forest near her castle. They swear eternal love, but are almost immediately informed that as part of the peace treaty between Spain and France, Phillip will wed Elisabeth instead. Elisabeth reluctantly agrees to the marriage for the good of her people.
Anthony Tommasini:

…the bass Ferruccio Furlanetto, as Philip…brought aching expressivity and
stentorian sound to the scene in his lonely study at night,…overcome with
anguish as he confronts the reality of his life: a young wife who never loved
him; a rebellious, contemptuous son; subjects who fear him.
The lovely
Russian soprano Marina Poplavskaya, as Elisabeth…with her luminous singing,
beautiful pianissimo high notes and unforced power, was a noble, elegant
Elisabeth. Somehow the cool Russian colorings of her voice brought out the
apartness of the character, a young woman in a loveless marriage in a foreign
land.

My favorite character in the recording we have listened to many times, is the mezzo-soprano, Eboli, the beautiful and vain princess who is in love with Don Carlo and believes he is in love with her. She has a wonderful aria lamenting her fatal gift of beauty, which has brought her to ruin. Again, Tommasini:

The weak link was the Russian mezzo-soprano Anna Smirnova, in her Met debut, as
Princess Eboli, though weak is hardly the word to describe her go-for-broke
singing. Her sound was enormous, but there was too much raw bellowing. Eboli, a
dark beauty who has been the king’s mistress, is a seductress but also a victim.
She should be sultry, not blowsy.

While Verdi worked on this opera, he wrote to his publisher, “There is nothing historical in this drama.”
The historical Don Carlos, Prince of Asturias (1545-1568), was the eldest son of Philip II. He had only 6 great-grandparents, out of a possible 16, which may have contributed to his delicate constitution and mental instability. At age 17 he fell down a flight of stairs and suffered severe head injuries. Afterwards his behavior became progressively more bizarre and unpredictable.
He was betrothed to Elisabeth of Valois, daughter of Henry II of France, when they were both 14. I doubt they ever met during this time, as she lived in France (sharing a bedroom with young Mary, Queen of Scots) and he in Spain. The following year, as part of a peace treaty, his father, Philip, age 32, married Elisabeth. Philip was so enchanted with her that he soon gave up his mistress. Elisabeth wrote to her mother, Catherine de Medici, that she was fortunate to have married so charming a prince. Philip stayed near Elisabeth’s side when she suffered from smallpox. Clearly this was not “a young woman in a loveless marriage in a foreign land.”
When Don Carlos did not receive the expected command of Philip’s forces in the Netherlands at age 22, he may have contacted rebels in the area, and planned to leave Spain. When King Philip learned of these plans, he had Don Carlos imprisoned in solitary confinement. Elisabeth was always fond of Don Carlos and cried for days after hearing this. When Don Carlos died six months later, it was rumored that Philip had him poisoned, but modern historians believe he died of natural causes, perhaps of eating disorders. Coincidentally, Elisabeth died that same year, from complications after the miscarriage of her fifth daughter. They were both 23.
Philip II of Spain (1527-1598) ruled over Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and the seventeen provinces that made up the Low Countries (modern-day Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg). During 1554 to 1558, while married to Queen Mary I, Henry VIII’s first daughter (“Bloody Mary”), he was also King of England and Ireland. During his reign Spain explored and colonized territories on all the continents known to Europeans at the time. Spain was a major player in the geopolitics of the day and the Philippines were named after him.
In 1563 he was described by a Venetian ambassador Paolo Fagolo: “his overall appearance is very attractive. He dresses very tastefully, and everything that he does is courteous and gracious.”
As head of a strong Catholic empire, Philip saw himself as a primary defender of the Catholic faith and supported the Spanish Inquisition, which was established by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, originally targeted at probing into whether or not the conversions to Christianity of Jews and Muslims were complete.
Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa, is completely fictional, a creation of Frederich Schiller. In Schiller’s drama, the Marquis Posa voices Schiller’s belief in personal freedom and democracy. Of Verdi’s Posa, Thomas Hampson (www.hampsong.com) comments:

The challenge artistically, then, to a role like Posa is, in fact, to avoid the
heroic. If one sings exactly as the master wrote, constant in his use of
pianissimi, trills, phrase markings, rests, there emerges a character who is
more intent on finding his way in each new circumstance rather than an operatic
figure bent on delivering his message. Posa is very intentionally given a
separate musical tone to each for his “partners ” – Elisabeth, Carlos, and most
importantly Philip – regardless of what it is he has to say. His lyricism is not
impotence, but a rather pliant, even manipulating dialogue. His outbursts are
always born of passion that surprises even himself and thus requires immediate
further dialogue. It is curious that the role of Posa is the only character not
to be altered in form, tessitura, presence, and, therefore, intent. Throughout
all of Verdi’s various revisions and approved translations from the original
French libretto, Posa remains intact.

The characters and events in the opera Don Carlos are only loosely related to the historical Don Carlos, Elisabeth, and Philip. Verdi uses these characters to explore themes of idealism and deception, loyalty and betrayal, love and jealousy, and family and faith.