Schreker's opera 'Distant Sound' heard at Bard

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. – His name is all but forgotten today, but a century ago Franz Schreker was considered perhaps the most important operatic composer since Richard Wagner.

Now Leon Botstein, an energetic excavator of neglected music, has brought Schreker's 1912 "Der Ferne Klang" ("The Distant Sound") to the campus of Bard College for its first fully staged production in the U.S.

Friday night's premiere, played superbly by the American Symphony Orchestra with Botstein conducting, revealed a richly inventive work, full of lush melodies and dissonant harmonies, sometimes suggestive of Richard Strauss.

Schreker wrote his own libretto, a feverish tale of a penniless young composer, Fritz, who abandons his sweetheart, Grete, to pursue an elusive "sound," while she drifts into prostitution. Although they are reunited, he dies as the curtain falls — a twist on the usual operatic scenario where it's the heroine who succumbs.

There are fine solos for the main characters and lovely orchestral interludes. But the highlight is the second act, set in a Venetian bordello, where Schreker introduces competing textures that include soloists and orchestra, a full chorus, a gypsy band and a gondoliers' serenade.

Botstein arrayed his forces to give this tour de force a visual equivalent: The orchestra in the pit is joined by three smaller bands — one in a box to stage left, another stage right and one on a raised platform behind the stage — to create a highly disciplined cacophony.

Director Thaddeus Strassberger updated the action to the period from the end of World War I to the time of Schreker's own death in 1934, making it a commentary on the decline of a troubled society.

Some effects worked well, like the second-act scene when Fritz encounters Grete after 10 years. Initially not realizing he is in a bordello, he sings a long solo about his love. But instead of looking at her directly, he gazes at her reflection in a series of mirrors, underscoring the illusion that is soon to be shattered. Other staging choices seemed dubious, like resetting a moonlit lake scene at a movie theater, where Grete (and, much to our distraction, the audience) watches silent films and newsreels.

The leading roles call for voices of Wagnerian size and stamina.

Soprano Yamina Maamar as Grete mustered some impressive top notes, but her singing was marred by a harsh, wobbly sound. Tenor Mathias Schulz struggled from the outset with Fritz's vocal line and ran out of steam before the end. Among the good supporting cast, baritones Jeff Mattsey and Corey McKern stood out as, respectively, the Hack Actor and the Count.

The half-Jewish, Austrian composer's success lasted through the 1920's, but the Nazis banned his music, and he died a broken man. Now, thanks to recent productions in Europe and Botstein's efforts, at least one of his works is reclaiming a place in the repertory.

The opera is being performed as part of Bard's SummerScape festival, this year exploring the music of Alban Berg, who was influenced by Schreker. Additional performances are scheduled for Aug. 1, 4 and 6. ___ Online: http://fishercenter.bard.edu/summerscape/2010/

Serbian proposes new talks on outstanding issues in Kosovo

BELGRADE — Serbia submitted a resolution to the United Nations Wednesday which, in an apparent concession to international pressure, called for new negotiations on Kosovo but did not insist on status talks.

Belgrade wants the UN General Assembly to call on both sides "to find mutually acceptable solutions for all outstanding issues through peaceful dialogue in the interest of peace, security and cooperation in the region."

The draft resolution, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, makes no mention of reopening talks on the status of Kosovo, which Belgrade had previously insisted on.

Serbia had insisted that it would not hold talks on any outstanding practical issues, as the EU and the US have called for, if the question of status was not dealt with.

Pristina however quickly condemned the Serbian proposal as a confrontational move that "does not contribute to dialogue".

"This is a political game pursued for the (Serbian) public in order to show that the battle (for Kosovo) is continuing," Kosovo's deputy Prime Minister Hajredin Kuci's told AFP by phone.

"It also aims at misleading the international community."

According to some observers, Pristina believes that by insisting on talks on "all outstanding issues" instead of just technical issues as Kosovo would like, Belgrade is trying to sneak in status talks through the backdoor.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008, a move that Belgrade refuses to recognise as it still considers the territory its southern province.

However, the draft that Belgrade wants adopted asks the general assembly to take "into account the fact that unilateral secession cannot be an acceptable way to solve territorial issues".

The resolution was submitted following last week's non-binding opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Pristina's declaration of independence did not violate international law.

It was drafted "after consultations with a wide circle of international factors, including all permanent members of the UN Security Council," the foreign ministry said in the statement.

Political analyst Predrag Simic told B92 radio that the draft resolution showed that Belgrade had received "the message from Brussels... that status talks were not possible any more after such an outcome at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)."

The text showed "a political realism of Belgrade emerging from the position recently announced by President (Boris) Tadic that Serbia does not want a confrontation with the big powers," Simic, a political science professor and Serbia's former ambassador to France, added.

One diplomatic source in Belgrade however said the draft resolution was "not enough" to satisfy the international community and the text had been drafted without consultation with other interested parties.

According to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the text has "ambiguous formulations that show that (the Serbs) want to raise the issue of status.

"The western powers do not want a wording that will allow Serbia to reopen the discussion on status," the diplomat added.

Sixty-nine countries, including the United States and 22 out of 27 member states of the European Union, have so far recognised the majority ethnic Albanian Kosovo as an independent state.

Kosovo had been under UN administration since a NATO air campaign against Serbia ended the 1998-99 war between Serb forces and separatist Kosovo Albanians. Some 13,000 people mostly ethnic Albanians lost their lives in the conflict.

Government won't target more Swiss banks on tax: U.S. diplomat

ZURICH (Reuters) – The United States, which targeted Swiss bank giant UBS in a damaging tax fraud probe last year, is not planning to carry out new tax investigations against Swiss banks, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland said.

Asked whether he envisaged new probes after the Swiss parliament ratified a Swiss-U.S. deal in June that put an end to the UBS tax saga, Donald Beyer told Swiss newspaper Le Temps on Saturday he was not aware of any new probe.

"To my knowledge no such thing is planned," Beyer, who became the top U.S. diplomat in Berne last year, was quoted as saying by the Swiss paper.

"The American government appreciates the good faith which Switzerland has shown during the ratification of the accord and its efforts to rid itself of its past as tax haven."

UBS agreed to pay $780 million in February 2009 and shared confidential bank data of about 280 of its clients to settle tax fraud criminal charges. Later that year Berne agreed to hand over to Washington bank data related to a further 4,450 clients of UBS, piercing a hole into Swiss bank secrecy laws.

The U.S. Department of Justice continues to go aggressively after U.S. citizens who have hidden assets abroad.

In February, top Justice Department lawyer Kevin Downing, who handled the UBS inquiry, said U.S. tax prosecutors were examining more than 7,000 accounts from foreign banks beyond UBS, leading to expectations a new tax probe could materialize soon.

Beyer said Swiss officials were these days more concerned with the newly approved Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), a U.S. bill adopted in March that will force non-U.S. banks to automatically share a vast amount of information regarding the bank dealings of their U.S. clients.

"In reality, the greatest fear of my Swiss interlocutors concern the FATCA law," Beyer said.

"They fear that conforming with it will lead to prohibitive costs. We are doing our best to allay these fears."

Clean-up crews use bare hands against China oil spill

BEIJING — Chinese authorities battled Thursday to contain an oil spill on the country's northeast coast amid reports it was spreading and as warnings emerged of a heavy long-term environmental impact.

The government has mobilised hundreds of fishing boats and other vessels to clean up the spill that occurred in the port city of Dalian, but Greenpeace said many people thrown into the effort were reduced to using their bare hands.

The spill happened last Friday after two pipelines exploded at an oil storage depot, triggering a spectacular blaze that burned throughout the weekend.

Officials said shortly after the spill that about 1,500 tonnes of oil were spilled into the Yellow Sea off Liaoning province.

A government estimate Monday said the slick had affected 435 square kilometres (around 170 square miles) of the Yellow Sea.

However, a report late Wednesday said the slick had spread to 946 square kilometres, and stretched as far as 90 kilometres along the coast. The report appeared in the Shenyang Evening News, based in the provincial capital.

The government has said about 40 special oil-skimming vessels were leading the clean-up and that 23 tonnes of oil-eating bacteria were being employed.

China National Petroleum Corp, the country's biggest oil company and owner of the pipelines that exploded, said in a statement on its website Thursday that at least 400 tonnes of the spilt oil had been cleaned up already.

Zhong Yu, a Greenpeace campaigner observing the clean-up efforts, however said many of the mobilised civilians and firefighters had no equipment or protective gear.

"The citizens-turned-cleaners we saw yesterday in the sea basically did not have any protective gear and could only use their hands to clean up the oil," she told AFP by phone.

Zhong said tourist beaches and other long stretches of coast were awash with black sludge up to 30 centimetres (one foot) thick near the shore.

"There is a strong smell of acid and oil in the air," she said.

The economic impact was already being felt by businesses in the area, with state press reports saying tourist beaches normally crammed with summer visitors were empty. Some beaches were officially closed to the public.

The area also has a major fishing industry, but catches had been banned for now.

A firefighter involved in clean-up efforts drowned on Tuesday after he entered the oil-slathered waters to try to clean a pump sucking up spilt oil, state media reports said.

Authorities have expressed confidence in corralling the spill and have repeatedly pointed out the reported volume of oil is miniscule compared to the US oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

But Zhao Zhangyuan, a researcher with the China Environmental Science Research Institute, told the Shanghai Morning Post the impact on marine life and on humans -- as the pollution enters the food chain -- could last 10 years.

"The most critical impact is on human health. As the oil decomposes, substances that are produced, many of them carcinogenic, can cause serious ecological damage," he was quoted as saying.

Greenpeace's Zhong said the impact could last even longer.

"One thing is certain: the pollution from the oil spill cannot be completely cleaned up. (Health) hazards from any oil spill will last long-term and affect one to two generations," she said.

An oil tanker berthed at the Dalian harbour Thursday for the first time since the accident, state-run Xinhua news agency said. Dalian is a major Chinese oil production and distribution hub.

Scandals spell trouble for Gibson's tarnished star

LOS ANGELES — Hollywood observers believe Mel Gibson's temper may have landed him in more than just hot water amid a furor over alleged rants against his ex-girlfriend. This time it may cost his career.

The latest scandal stems from profane and rage-filled comments posted on the celebrity gossip website RadarOnline.com which were culled from audio tapes, allegedly of Gibson threatening and cursing his ex-girlfriend, Russian musician Oksana Grigorieva.

The tapes have only further tarnished the reputation of devout Catholic Gibson, already known for his scathing comments against blacks and Jews.

While the tapes have yet to be authenticated, neither Gibson nor his lawyers have issued any denial since they first surfaced a week ago.

And with horrendous details of his private life in full view -- the culmination of an ugly breakup between Grigorieva, 40, and Gibson, 54, following a January beating in which he allegedly knocked out some of her teeth -- agents and fellow actors were quick to turn their backs on the star.

Among the first was the William Morris Endeavor agency headed by powerful agent Ari Emanuel, who has made no secret in the past of his disdain for the "Mad Max" star after an alcohol-fueled anti-Semitic outburst became public in 2006.

"Stars have come back from scandals before, but the number of times Mel Gibson has been in the news for aggressive and abusive behavior, along with racist and sexist remarks, makes him a poor bet for being one of those who manage to rebuild their careers," University of Southern California professor Leo Braudy told AFP.

"Now that he has been dropped by his agent, and denounced by a number of fellow stars, it seems like a real uphill battle, which would make even investors who have some faith in his talent very wary."

Movie agents and actors, who requested anonymity in order to speak more freely about the case, predicted a rough road ahead for Gibson, who received two Oscars for his acting and directing of "Braveheart." The 1995 drama was nominated for 10 Oscars and scored five.

"His career has taken a real downturn... No one of quality is going to want to be associated with him," said popular culture critic Elayne Rapping.

"He's really ruined his reputation beyond repair. I've never seen anyone behaving in the way he is."

But she noted that Gibson's work does remain popular with some fans and he could continue directing and acting so long as he has his own production company.

The fallen star could thus dig into the fortune he has amassed from such blockbusters as "The Passion of the Christ," his 2004 film with a 30-million-dollar budget that took 600 million dollars in worldwide revenue.

A former agent with one of the most prestigious Hollywood talent agencies compared working with Gibson today to collaborating with O.J Simpson, the American football legend who was famously cleared of murdering his ex-wife and her friend at a 1995 trial.

"Irrespective if the public accepts or doesn't accept it, the people who actually give him the jobs or help him get jobs no longer support him," the agent said, requesting not to be named.

"The actual Hollywood community doesn't want to work with him any more. He's lost the support of his agent, he's lost the support of many financiers who could put into a movie."

A legal fight is also brewing between Gibson and Grigorieva, a Russian-born model and pianist, over the custody of their baby girl Lucia. The "Lethal Weapon" star is due in court on Tuesday in the domestic violence case.

But some point to Gibson's proven ability to rise and fall, again and again.

"Of course he needs agents," acknowledged veteran publicist Fredell Pogodin, who considers Gibson a "maverick" who is "not politically correct at all.

But she also added: "Does he have enough money though to, if he needed to, to go and fund and start his own films? Yes. And if those films are successful, will Hollywood then see him and want to work with him again? I'm sure."

Afghan health team abducted; local official killed

KABUL, Afghanistan — Gunmen kidnapped five Health Ministry employees in Afghanistan's volatile Kandahar province while insurgents killed a district official elsewhere, reportedly on the orders of the Taliban supreme leader, officials said Thursday.

Insurgent bombings, gunbattles, assassinations and abductions have been increasing this year as thousands of American troops partnered with Afghan forces fan out in the militants' southern strongholds to try to wrest back control and establish effective local government.

Members of a medical team were abducted Wednesday afternoon while returning to Kandahar city, the provincial capital, after visiting a project in Maiwand district, provincial spokesman Zulmi Ayubi said Thursday.

The gunmen forced the car to stop about a mile (two kilometers) outside Maiwand and abducted two doctors, a pharmacist, a nurse and their driver, Ayubi said. The Health Ministry issued a statement calling for their release.

The kidnappers were not identified, but Taliban insurgents have been on spree of assassinations and abductions of government workers. The campaign of fear is especially intense in Kandahar, where Afghan and international forces have been increasing their presence, with the apparent message that the militants can still operate in their traditional stronghold.

Kandahar is the spiritual birthplaces of the Taliban, who follow an extreme form of Islam that they imposed on Afghanistan during their five years in power before their regime was toppled by U.S.-backed forces for sheltering al-Qaida terrorist leaders.

In neighboring Uruzgan province, insurgents manning a makeshift checkpoint pulled a district leader out of his vehicle and shot him dead in the road on Tuesday, according to Gulab Khan, the provincial deputy police chief.

Saleh Mohammad was a member of a local tribal council in Khas Uruzgan district, an area where U.S. forces are working with local government.

A U.S. special forces officer was quoted in a NATO statement as saying the local leader was on a list of Afghan officials that Mullah Mohammad Omar, the leader of the main Afghan Taliban faction, sent to his followers with orders to kill them.

Mullah Omar, who headed the Taliban's former government, is in hiding, possibly around the Pakistani city of Quetta.

Also in Uruzgan, police said they had killed a local Taliban commander, identified as Mullah Dawood, in a gunbattle.

A routine police patrol discovered the insurgents in a village in Tarin Kot district and started fighting, according to Gulab Khan, the deputy police chief. He said five insurgents, including the commander and a bomb-maker, died and the police suffered no casualties.

Taliban spokesmen could not be reached for comment.

Building up Afghan police and army into a reliable security force is one of the lynchpins of the new counterinsurgency policy for the war, which calls for an increase in international troops to secure areas and then turn them over to local authorities, eventually allowing foreign troops to withdraw without the Taliban seizing power again.

Canada needs more, bigger parks to protect wildlife: study

OTTAWA — Canada's patchwork of parks must be connected, and more, bigger parks must be created in order to protect the habitats of large roaming animals, said a report Friday.

Canada boasts more than 3,500 protected areas, including 42 national parks.

But the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) in its report warned that several species are at risk of dying out because their designated confines are too small.

"In Canada we have one of the best opportunities left in the world to create big parks that can protect species that need large areas of wilderness to survive," said CPAWS executive director Eric Hebert-Daly.

"Bigger, better managed parks, and more of them, are needed if parks are to fulfill their critical role in protecting Canada's wildlife."

In the past year, the government established the new Gwaii Haanas National Marine Conservation Area off the coast of British Columbia, where orca whales feed.

Ottawa also announced it would create new parks to protect wild horses on Sable Island, Nova Scotia and in the Mealy Mountains of Newfoundland, where a herd of woodland caribou roam.

But CPAWS said this falls short.

The non-profit group, which played a lead role in establishing two-thirds of Canada's protected wilderness spaces over the past five decades, prescribed creating even more parks and expanding existing park boundaries.

It also called for the restoration of "wildlife movement corridors" to allow animals to roam between protected areas, for interbreeding and adapting to environmental changes.

"Many of our parks, particularly in southern Canada, are small islands of nature in developed landscapes," the report noted.

"And evidence is growing that for parks to effectively protect wildlife, particularly those species that range over large areas, they need to protect big areas of habitat and be connected together into networks of protected lands and waters."

As examples, the report blamed "habitat fragmentation" for grizzly bear deaths and for the decline of woodland caribou in Banff National Park until the last five caribou were wiped out in an avalanche last year.

Grizzly bears need "an abundance of secure habitat (away from roads and trails)" to survive, the report said. A male grizzly bear can roam over 1,000 square kilometers (385 square miles) to find all the food, shelter, and mates he needs in his lifetime.

Banff 's 6,641 square kilometers (2,564 square miles) is "not enough space for a healthy, viable population to survive," it said.

Six grizzly bears were killed by trains outside the park since 2007 due to "a lack of effective movement corridors."

Banff is connected to Jasper National Park to the north, and to protected areas in Kananaskis Country to the south, but "connecting this complex of protected areas further south is key to the success of this species."

The report was also critical of a proposed Tursujuq Provincial Park's boundaries in Quebec's far north for not including the majority of the habitat of the world's only harbor seals that live permanently in freshwater.

And the development of wineries, retirement homes, small ranches and golf courses near a proposed South Okanagan-Similkameen National Park Reserve in British Columbia is encroaching on the habitat of one-third of the province's species at risk.

In Manitoba province, meanwhile, a recent hunting ban in and near Nopiming Provincial Park is hoped will boost the faltering number of moose that move in and out of the park.

UN sets new guidelines for packaged salads, melamine in food

GENEVA — UN agencies said Tuesday they had tightened limits on melamine content in food and guidelines for packaged salads in an effort to reduce food poisoning affecting one-third of the world's people.

Packaged salads could become contaminated through the water used to irrigate them, said World Health Organisation's food safety department official Jorgen Schlundt.

"In relation to salads, the issue is often that you can have contamination because you have contaminated water that you put on the fields. This can be contaminated by anything -- from human faeces to animal faeces," he said.

The new guidelines include details on the quality of water to be used on the fields as well as procedures on harvesting the salads, he said.

"The issue is to make sure that the farms are doing the right thing," he added.

There is no data for the number of people who fall sick from consuming contaminated packaged salads every year but Schlundt said there were cases in developed as well as developing countries.

He emphasised the problem of food contamination in general, saying that "at least one-third of the global population get sick from food every year."

The WHO, Food and Agriculture Organisation and the UN food standards body Codex Alimentarius Commission also set limits of the natural occurrence of melamine in food products, Schlundt said.

For powder infant milk formula the new international limit is one miligram of melamine per kilogram of formula, while for other food it is 2.5 miligrams.

The WHO stressed that melamine content in food should be its "resulting from non-intentional" presence with any intentional addition of the substance prohibited.

The tightened limit follows a scandal in China in 2008 when melamine was found to have been added to a range of products including baby formula, leading to the death of six infants with almost 300,000 falling ill.

Uruguay pay price for 'Hand of God' win

JOHANNESBURG — Uruguay may have paid a high price for their contentious victory over Ghana on penalties to set up a World Cup semi-final with the Netherlands in Cape Town on Tuesday.

The two-time world champions reached the last-four for the first time in 40 years after denying the Ghanaians from becoming the first African team to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup.

Uruguay held their nerve to win the penalty shoot-out 4-2 after it was locked at 1-1 after extra-time at Soccer City on Friday.

Striker Luis Suarez, whose deliberate handball in the final minute of extra-time denied Ghana the winning goal, will miss the Dutch showdown after he was red-carded by Portuguese referee Olegario Benquerenca.

Asamoah Gyan had the chance to win the match for Ghana, but the Rennes forward crashed his penalty against the crossbar forcing the match into penalties.

Coach Oscar Tabarez may also have to find a new centre-back pairing after Jorge Fucile received his second yellow card of the tournament and skipper Diego Lugano withdrew before halftime with an injured right knee.

"I don't know how far we can go. The Netherlands have great players but we cannot betray this group of players," Tabarez said.

"We have a little time to prepare for the match but we are going there to win.

"We didn't play good football against Ghana but we fought very hard.

"We are amongst the four best teams at this World Cup. This is something we would never have imagined before coming to South Africa."

Debate raged on Saturday over Suarez's deliberate handball, which ultimately proved decisive for the Uruguayans, who lost 3-1 to Brazil the last time they reached the World Cup semi-finals in Mexico in 1970.

The Ajax striker was hailed as a hero in Uruguay for what he has called his 'Hand of God.'

Diego Maradona famously credited a goal against England at the 1986 World Cup to the "Hand of God" after he scored with his hand.

"I did it so that my teammates could win the penalty shoot-out. When I saw Gyan miss the penalty it was a great joy," Suarez said.

Man-of-the-match Diego Forlan spoke for his teammates when he said of Suarez's actions:" "It's a pity (he will miss the semi), he made a good save today, we'll try to do our best.

"He played his part. He didn't score a goal but he saved one and now we go to the semi-final."

Tabarez supported Suarez amid cheating accusations, by saying:"It was instinctive, he instinctively put his hand out to the ball and was red-carded and will miss the next game.

"He has paid for the consequences of his actions. He wasn't to know that Ghana would miss the resulting penalty. It is not fair to say that we cheated our way to victory."

But Ghana's Serbian coach Milovan Rajevac was sanguine about the manner in which his team was dumped from the World Cup and thereby snuffing out the remaining African hope at the tournament.

"All I can say is this is football. That's football," Rajevac said.

"I do not know what I would tell him (Suarez) if I saw him. We had a penalty in the last minute, but it was bad luck, that's all I can say. We weren't lucky today.

"This is sport and justice. Today Uruguay were the lucky ones."