The Peace Fountain of the Cathedral Church of St, John the Divine

As a continuation of my prior blog post  (click here) about the magnificent Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, I'd like to show you the very unusual "Peace Fountain" which is located in the side yard of the cathedral. (The photo collage above---as well as all photos in this post--will enlarge for easier viewing if clicked on once)  The Peace Fountain was sculpted by Cathedral Artist-in-Residence Greg Wyatt to mark the 200th anniversary of the Anglican Diocese of New York in 1985. Information from the cathedral's web site: The 40-foot high bronze sculpture weaves together several representations of the conflict between good and evil. Above, the Archangel Michael embraces one of the nine giraffes (said to be the most peaceful of creatures) after his defeat of Satan. Below, the lion lies down with the lamb. The fountain's spiraling base takes inspiration from the double-helix of DNA  On either side of the fountain, moon and sun-like faces direct their gazes toward and away from Amsterdam Avenue."

I lightened this photo so that you could see more of the detail in the sculpture

Another view of the Peace Fountain.

There is much symbolism in the fountain, and if you click on and enlarge this descriptive plaque that is at its base, you can read more about the fountain.

Around the fountain's basin are a series of small bronze animal sculptures created by K-12 students from New York City and tri-state area public, private and parochial school. Collectively known as the Children's Sculpture Garden, it represents the diverse community the Cathedral strives to serve and represent.

Close-ups of some of the animals sculpted by the children.

There were also book-like sculptured plaques located in the sunken plaza in which the fountain sits,  that contained quotations of various philosophers, authors, artists, and contemporary icons 

The Cathedral and its surrounding gardens and buildings form an 11.3-acre complex collectively referred to as The Close.  The Close is open to the public year-round during daylight hours, with two entrances located along Amsterdam Avenue at 110th and 111th Streets.  On the grounds are the Cathedral House, the Ogilvie House, the Diocesan House, the Synod House, and the Ithiel Town Building.

The grounds also contain a Pulpit Lawn, a Biblical Garden containing all the species mentioned in the bible, and roaming peacocks and beehives, Unfortunately, I visited the Cathedral in early March before the spring flowering, and the light was fading so I was unable to get good photos of these features.  Whenever I make a return visit to NYC I will try to re-visit to see them.

Across from the back of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine lies Morningside Park. It is a narrow strip that stretches 13 blocks through the neighborhoods of Harlem and Morningside Heights. Built on a steep incline, it contains winding paths bordered with trees and flowers that lead to a cascading waterfall. Ball fields and playgrounds make it a pleasant community park.

Driving away from the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine is a view of Broadway in the Upper West Side, which is full of residential buildings.

It has been a busy time for me the past few months, as not only did I visit NYC twice, but I also visited Chicago, and the Sonoma and Napa Valleys of California, and San Francisco! My husband had quite a few business trips to those areas that we extended by a few days into mini vacations.  So I have much ahead to show on future posts from those cities as well as from my beautiful area in Colorado. Hope you will visit again soon!

The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York

The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and is located at 1047 Amsterdam Ave, in Manhattan's Morningside Heights neighborhood. (Please note that all photos in this post will enlarge for easier viewing if clicked on)

To paraphrase its brochure that I collected at the entrance: The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine is chartered as a house of prayer for all people and a unifying center of intellectual light and leadership. People from many faiths and communities worship together in services held more than 30 times a week. The soup kitchen serves roughly 20,000 meals annually, and it's Textile Conservation Lab preserves world treasures, concerts, performances, exhibitions, and civic gatherings allow conversations, celebrations, reflection, and remembrance.

The cathedral is the fourth largest Christian church in the world and ties with Liverpool Cathedral for the title of the largest Anglican cathedral and church.

The interior covers 121,000 square feet and spans a length of 601 feet, and a height of 232 feet.

The cathedral 's construction was begun in 1892, and it went under many different style changes during its construction, beginning with a Byzantine-Romanesque Revival style and ending in Gothic Revival style.  In December of 2001, it had a massive fire and was closed for repairs until November 2008. It remains somewhat unfinished, with construction, and restoration is a continuing process. The complete history timeline of the cathedral can be seen on its website at this link.

This was my first visit to the Cathedral, and when I entered the massive size of it took my breath away! There was scaffolding hanging from the ceiling to support an art exhibit--more about that at the end of this post.

Cathedrals seem to make a person's spirit soar because of their grandeur and architectural elegance. Considering that the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine suffered a giant fire, it was in remarkably good condition.

From west to east run three aisles of bronze floor medallions referred to as the Pilgrims Pavement. The side aisle medallions show the names and crests of key pilgrimage sites, as well as significant sites in Anglican history. The central aisle marks the miracles performed by Jesus from birth through the Feeding of the Multitude...

The rose stained glass window is the largest in the United States, and at forty feet in diameter, it is the third largest in the world! It is made of over ten thousand pieces of glass. At its center is Jesus, surrounded by the New and Old Testament prophets, as well as sixteen angels. Below it is the Lesser Rose Window, shaped like a seven-pointed star.

Each vertical set of stained glass windows is dedicated to one of the fourteen forms of human endeavor, including Labor, Medicine, Education, Military, Arts, and Sport. The ground level windows show a variety of historical and scriptural figures engaged in a particular activity--such a Jesus performing healing miracles.

This pulpit, found on the right, facing the front of the cathedral, is dedicated to the memory of Horatio Potter, Bishop of New York, 1854-1887.

Standing in the nave, looking back toward the front doors...

...looking forward from the same spot. The size of this cathedral is massive!

The stone pulpit on the left side of the cathedral, with a figure of Saint John the Divine.

Seven chapels are located from the ambulatory behind the choir. These chapels are known as the "Chapels of the Tongues, "and they were designed to represent the seven most prominent ethnic groups to first immigrate to New York City upon the opening of Ellis Island in 1892.

On permanent loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the elegantly carved wooden 15th-century German choir stalls separate the Narthex from the Nave. The Cathedral campus has six organs. In the photo above you can also see an organist playing the "Great Organ," which was built by the Ernest M Skinner Company in 1910, and rebuilt and enlarged by G. Donald Harrison of Aeolian-Skinner in 1954. After the devastating fire in 2001, the Great Organ was painstakingly restored by Quimby Pipe Organs of Warrensburg, Missouri.  The cathedral is known for its "Great Music in Great Spaces" concerts



The video above shows a special concert held at the cathedral called "Most Elevating Voices, the Musical Legacy of Andrew Carnegie: A Transatlantic Celebration featuring the voices of the Cathedral's massed choirs, the Oratorio Society of New York, the Manhattan School of Music Chamber Choir, and the famed Great Organ. (Please note there are about three minutes of the video shown before the organ music begins, and 19 minutes before the choirs begin to sing--it is magnificent to hear!)

More photos of some of the architectural and symbolic beauty of the cathedral. Please click on the photo to enlarge.

The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine is often used as an exhibition space for the arts, and the current exhibit called "Phoenix"--on display through 2014--was a feat of engineering an ingenuity by contemporary artist Xu Bing, who culled detritus from constructions sites across the rapidly changing urban landscape of Beijing to transform the objects into this monumental project.

Phoenix is composed of two birds, a male called Feng and a female called Huang. Feng and Huang weigh 12 tons and measure 90-100 feet long, and are suspended in the nave.

Click on the photo collage above to enlarge the photo and read more about the Phoenix.

They were certainly an enthralling sight to see!

One of the "Golden Doors" -- bronze front doors of the Cathedral, seen from the inside. Cast by Barbedienne of Paris, who also cast the Statue of Liberty. Each door is 18 feet high, six feet wide and weighs three tons. The doors have 60 bas relief panels that depict Old and New Testament stories on the exterior side, and flowers and birds and natural imagery on the interior side.

An interesting event that takes place the first Sunday of October at the Cathedral--the "Blessing of the Animals" in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals. The church is filled with men, women, and children accompanied by their pets, and assorted guest animals such as llamas, sheep, camels, long-horned steers, turtles, parrots, even bumblebees, etc, are escorted down the church aisle as the ceremony begins.  It is a very joyful celebration!



The video above shows an example of an opening procession of animals, clergy, choir, dancers, and guests. You can also see a video at Time magazine on this link that shows a little more of the ceremony.

There is also the annual Blessing of the Bicycles, where hundreds of cyclists, including the vulnerable bike messengers of New York City, wheel into the Great Crossing of the church to be blessed.  You can read more about this event on this NPR link.

The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine is truly a magnificent place to visit, and I hope I've enticed you to want to see it someday and perhaps attend an event there. Come back soon as in a future post I'll show you a very unique and unusual fountain called the "Peace Fountain" that is located in the cathedral's 11.3-acre grounds

James Valenti Makes His Debut in La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera!

James Valenti, the handsome and vocally strong young American tenor seen in the photo above from his web site, made his Metropolitan Opera debut last night in the Met's 953 performance of Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata."  I was especially excited to see Mr. Valenti perform the role of Alfredo, because in an unusual "six degrees of separation" experience, I first learned about this native New Jersey tenor through his mother.  She is a reader of my blog, and in December she was nice enough to inform me in an e-mail about her son's upcoming Met debut. She does not have her own blog, and does not usually make comments, but since she knew I was an opera fan, and that I often attended the Metropolitan Opera, she thought I might be interested to attend one of James' performances.

 

Although our selections of operas for this season were finished, my husband and I were lucky enough to be able to purchase tickets to the opening night of La Traviata, along with tickets for our daughter. This photo was taken last night of us standing in front of the fountain in the Lincoln Center plaza, before we went inside the opera house.

We were also happy to be able to see the beautiful and lavish Franco Zeffirelli La Traviata production one last time, as this is its final season, and next year the new production of La Traviata by Willy Decker will be set in modern times, with modern dress and sparser sets.  Actually, according to the Playbill program that I read last night, Verdi intended La Traviata to be in modern dress, when he wrote it in 1853, so the new production will be an  interesting interpretation to see next year.

 

As always, I had to stop to look at vintage opera costumes on display in the opera house -- this one was worn by Jerome Hines as Sarastro in Mozart's Die Zauberflote, between 1958 to 1979.

 

This costume, designed by Mark Chagall, was worn by Lucia Popp in the role of the Queen of the Night, also in Mozart's Die Zauberflote  It was worn between 1967 and 1970.

Looking up at the  opera house's atrium's chandelier's from the Family Circle balcony.

 

Looking out at the plaza during a very rainy night. New York City has received over eight inches of rain in the past few days!

A close up of the atrium's Swarovski crystal chandeliers.  This could have been a photo of my excited eyes sparkling as I watched the beautiful soprano Angela Gheorghiu portray the young and tragic heroine Violetta.  La Traviata literally translates to "The Fallen One," and is a tale about a young Parisian courtesan who becomes genuinely and passionately loved by Alfredo. Although at first resistant to his attention, as Violetta knows she suffers from a fatal disease and therefore wants to enjoy life and stay free, Violetta finally falls in love for the first time with Alfredo. They go off to live in the countryside, where Alfredo sings of his joy in the aria: "De miei bollenti spiriti – "Wild my dream of ecstasy!"  Mr. Valenti gave a strong and passionate rendidtion of this aria and received a long and thunderous applause from the appreciative Met audience!

Alfredo's father, Giorgio Germont, expertly played by baritone Thomas Hampson, visits them and pleads with Violetta to send Alfredo back home as he has disgraced the family and this will prevent his sister from getting married. A heartbroken Violetta relents and unselfishly writes a farewell note to Alfredo. Before he receives it, a heartbroken Violetta sings: "Amami Alfredo – "Love me, Alfredo."

Of course, as with many Italian operas, love conquers, but the ending is tragic.The entire synopsis of La Traviata can be read on the Metropolitan Opera's web site here.

A view of the Metropolitan Opera house during an intermission.  Our seats were in the Family Circle tier, the highest tier in the house as this opera was destined  to be completely sold out, and since we bought our tickets late, we were happy to sit anywhere!  The acoustics are wonderful in this section, however, and I always bring a small pair of binoculars in order to see the performers better.  The Met has a system where you can read the lyrics of the arias as they are being sung by a device which is situated on the back of the chair rail in front of each seat. Appreciation of the opera is enhanced this way, and I often read along, but La Traviata was the first opera I was introduced to by a high school music teacher who was ardently in love with Violetta and Alfredo, and by the end of our music semester her entire class, especially myself, was equally in love with them.  I have listened to my recording of Beverly Sills singing the role of Violetta so many times over 35 years that I feel I know this opera by heart, and the haunting first violin strains from the orchestra in the prelude never ceases to give me chills of anticipation. 

 

 

The conductor was Leonard Statkin, and he admitted to not having conducted La Traviata before in his career on his web site blog. While I thought the orchestra performed up to par last night, The New York Times review of the performance was somewhat scathing in his review of Statkin.

 

Meanwhile, the New York Times review of James Valenti was this:  "The young American tenor James Valenti had a solid success in his Met debut as Alfredo. He is tall (over 6 feet 5 inches), handsome and physically agile: qualities reflected in his virile and attractive singing. His voice is not huge, but it carries well. He won a rousing ovation."  I was certainly one of those giving him a rousing ovation throughout his performances!

Thoma Hampson, Angela Gheorghiu, James Valenti and Leonard Slatkin taking bows at the conclusion of La Traviata.

It was an exciting opera night and I was thrilled to feel a part of the debut of a rising star in opera!  I wish James Valenti much success in his career and urge you to listen to samples of his past performances in other opera houses around the country, and the world, on his web site at this link, and I'm sure you will also become his fan!

I'm linking this post to "Outdoor Wednesday" at A Southern Daydreamer's blog.  Thanks Susan!