AYAZ AMIR: UNA VISIÓN DE ANNA Y ROLANDO DESDE PAKISTÁN

Ayaz Amir es un reconocido periodista y político de Pakistán, miembro de la Asamblea Nacional (Parlamento) de este país. En sus escritos y editoriales, Amir es crítico con el papel del ejército pakistaní en la historia de su país. Se considera liberal, y defiende apasionadamente el estado de derecho, la democracia, y el fin del gobierno militar y de las versiones extremistas del Islam. 

Hoy he leído, primero con curiosidad y después muy agradablemente sorprendida, un artículo publicado por Amir en un periódico digital árabe, kaleestimes.com , con el título de Taking to the Road, del que os reproduzco la parte final:

Who could have thought of YouTube only a few years ago? This is another miracle not so much of science as of the universe. For anchorites in the desert there was no more compelling, vision of Elysium than of an extended garden with enduring shades and never-ending streams.

For the modern anchorite (if this be not a contradiction in terms) Elysium would be incomplete without YouTube and broadband Internet access.  Indeed, even when the walls of Jericho come tumbling down and the mountains are one with the seas, cyberspace as we know it will perhaps remain unaffected. Imagine, the world coming to an end but not cyberspace.

We in Pakistan have no direct access to opera or ballet. Both are not part of our culture or tradition and on our radio and television they simply do not figure. This is a pity because both are great art forms and to be deprived of them is to miss out on a vital aspect of the human experience.

In music I am an amateur. I think I have an ear for it but about its theory or philosophy I know next to nothing. A dissertation on it I would not be able to deliver. But a good voice and a good song I think I can recognise. And it is in this spirit that I say that if at all interested in opera (and here again I am at pains to stress that I am not addressing the highbrow specialist) you will thank me if you go to YouTube and click Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon. This will open a world of beauty and virtuosity that you may not have seen, the perfect antidote to the depression and anxiety of the age of terror.

Netrebko is the hottest face in contemporary opera. But, more important, the hottest voice too. Villazon is handsome in a way, I am given to understand, women die for (and perhaps for this reason the kind of face most unhandsome men detest). He too is an extraordinary singer. And it doesn’t really matter if the words are not understood.

Opera primarily is about mood and feeling. Taking to the road then takes on a slightly different meaning: remaining cut off from the world but remaining connected to the mysterious world of cyberspace. I suppose this would be a new form of mysticism.

Me ha parecido muy interesante todo el artículo, sus reflexiones sobre la importancia de Youtube, que diga que ser privado de la ópera es perder en un aspecto vital de la experiencia humana, que concrete que se dirige a los interesados en la ópera, no a los "especialistas intelectuales". Su opinión de que la ópera es un estada de ánimo y sentimiento. Y la conexión con el misterioso mundo del ciberespacio, como una nueva forma de misticismo. Y especialmente estas palabras, referidas a los vídeos de Anna y Rolando: "esto te abrirá a un mundo de belleza y virtuosismo que tal vez no conoces, el perfecto antídoto para la depresión y la ansiedad de la era de terror". 

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