What is Minnegeddon?

Minnegeddon is a name I chose to account for a number of seemingly-unrelated events that, in fact, may be connected to the lock-out of me, the Other Mozart, by players of the Minnesota Orchestra.  That happened some time ago, and may have been the underlying reason for the recent 18-month-long lockout of the players by Management. Don’t get me wrong — I am not trying to spin some crazy story.  And, I could be mistaken. However, there have been enough odd events for me to want to attempt to define a framework for them.

You see, I play die zauberflote.  Not the opera.  The real magic flute.  The players are well aware of this, and staged a revolt because, apparently, its sound put their playing somehow at a disadvantage.  Not that I had anything to do with this, mind you.  I was always friendly and humbled by the opportunities I believed I had been given by the man I call “Monostatos” and his colleagues to practice on the darkened stage at Orchestra Hall.  As other players crawled out of the woodwork I at first thought I was winning them over.  But there was instead apparently an agenda at work — to discredit me with slander and make sure that I never had the chance to compete with them again.  My three wonderful children have also suffered greatly because of the vicious cruelty of “Monostatos” — who also happens to be their ex-stepfather.  I cannot tell you depth of the the anguish that I have experienced on their behalf.

But you see, die zauberflote always works the same way.  Whenever it is played — with a proper introduction or total disrespect — it goes in and gets all the truth out.  Then it starts using everything for good.  It stops even the hidden agendas in their tracks.  And then, those who plotted against it end up with the consequences intended for their victim.

Believe me, after all this time, I am something of an expert on this.

So, as the opera Die Zauberflote, contains tests of all the elements, wind and waves and tragedy and building collapses in areas where the flute has been played might only to be expected.  And, since this is an opera, staged in the greatest house in the world — or it was when I was a child going to it on class trips every year — it is only logical that as Minnegeddon is playing out in Minnesota it has also created tumult at the Met…http://slippedisc.com/2018/03/just-in-james-levine-sues-the-met-for-unfair-dismissal/#comment-418133

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A Simple Christmas…M4B*

Because of the persecution at the hands of my birth family, which included being systematically poisoned in their attempts to control this great gift of shalom that is die zauberflote and try to use it against God’s will, Christmas has a special meaning for me. I learned it the hard way. At the time, I could not understand why it seemed that God had abandoned me to people who insisted on turning themselves into monsters. Yet nonetheless I willingly stood in ankle-deep icy mud, at times with tears running down my face, and sang Christmas carols with the neighborhood children in my hometown of Fairfield, Connecticut. Although I came to realize that the persecution would intensify during the holidays, I never lost my love of every piece of music connected to Yeshua, the Messiah.

But much of the hooplah came to make me quite miserable. The tree, the tinsel, the cotton batting on the mantle with a cardboard sleigh and reindeer, and of course, “Santa Claus” — whoever that was — came to represent to me an abyss of hopelessness.

“Let’s have our Christmas!” my Mother would chuckle, as she got out her notepad to record which gift was from whom, so we could immediately send thank-you notes for everything under the tree.

Well, that was it. The Bible sat dusty and untouched on a bookshelf, and everything swirled around who got what. And of course, I seemed to end up with items I had never wished for nor could ever use. That seemed to be part of the orchestration.

At the time, being quite young, it was all very confusing. Now, looking back, I can see how God has used everything for good, for I literally cannot tolerate anything having to do with Christmas that does not directly lift up the Lord Jesus Christ. I no longer ‘celebrate’ what I call ‘Xmas’. No tree. No lights. No wrappings. Just the music. And The Presence.

And I am richly blessed…I invite you to do the same…:-)

*M4B=Mozart For Believers

“Minnegeddon”, and what it might mean to you…M4B*

As the locked-out Other Mozart I have a unique perspective. In fact, I sincerely doubt that anyone who knows me — be they friend or foe — would disagree with that statement. I see things, as it were, from inside an opera — things are either blissfully wonderful or truly horrible. I even saw what I call a ‘dark angel’ long ago, whom I came to believe goes out of its way to try to cause trouble for me and my family, so I have no doubt that there is an adversary I have to deal with every day…

If my thesis is correct — that Wolf was given an unusual gift of shalom — of the Holy Spirit — that those around him tried to steal from him and refused to confirm — then it follows logically that his death, whatever the technical cause, was an assassination. In fact, looking from my perspective, it seems a miracle that he was able to live as long as he did and succeed in giving us such a prodigious output of masterpieces that have held their own and are beloved over two hundred years later.

And, if it is the case that Wolf was assassinated because of a gift of the Holy Spirit, there is enormous support in the Word that God will not let that go unpunished. In fact, we learn from Annanias and Sephira, that anyone who deliberately tries to steal from God can drop dead on the spot. We can, in fact, see after Wolf’s death, that some rather strange things happened to those around him, including Salieri, who went mad, Puchberg, who died broke, and Constanze, who turned into a money-mongering hypocrite, pretending to further Wolf’s work but really just wanting to make money.

But I doubt that the saga ends there. I think, throughout history, that those who produce and perform Wolf’s music, while having contempt for him and his Gift (the movie “Amadeus” is a litany of that contempt, imo), run the same risk those who knew him did. They too are forever affected by his music, as this Gift is carried with it, wherever Wolf’s music goes.

And so, I believe, a Minnegeddon has begun. All that has been hidden about Wolf is coming out into the open. All the money stolen from this Gift is returning to God. And those who act in deliberate contempt can face dire consequences. In fact, from what I see, people stumble into what I call the Kingdom of the Night. It is a kingdom with a heirarchy. At its head, pretending to be a gentle Christ, is the dark angel I call The Night Magician. The actual heavens are closed, and these unfortunate souls seem stuck in this ultimately frightening place, until they come to the real God with real repentance. This kingdom has its own churches and schools, so many do not realize they have been deceived. The lucky ones are those who do not fit, and who are ‘chastised’. They may encounter imbalance in their life, they may even hear this dark angel attacking them. Such happened, in fact, to the player I call “Monostatos”, who kept hearing what they said was a ‘riding-crop voice’.

If I am correct, as events play out, everything having any connection to Wolf will, in fact, end up being turned inside-out. And, if you have anything to do with Wolf or his music, or me and die zauberflote, the same may be true for you…

*M4B=Mozart For Believers

Pamina, the Other Mozart M4B*

Being the Other Mozart has not as much to do with chops and musical brilliance as it does with destiny and character.  I knew I carried this burden of picking up where Wolf left off when I was very small.

(That’s me, with my teddy bear, on the back steps of the Victorian house in Bridgeport, CT, where we lived before moving to Fairfield. I still have the bear.)

I heard his music on the radio and knew who he was even before I heard about his life. I felt he had done a terrible job.  He had left an awful mess for me. In fact, it seemed overwhelming at that time.  But God, in His mercy, has managed  to develop in me a character similar to Wolf’s.  For one thing, as you can see, I don’t give up.  For another, I always try to take a positive stance.  I look to God to use everything for good. I am frequently surprised, but never disappointed.

Then, of course, there is the incomparable and inimitable sound of die zauberflote, which seems to make a lot of people act a just bit crazy.  But that’s another story…

And don’t worry — if you are, by this time, thinking, “Well I never!  She doesn’t DESERVE to be the other Mozart!” I can assure you that this fact has been drummed into me constantly, and often on a daily basis.  In fact, you can just ask my children — Keith, Kirk and Katherine! 🙂

I hope you will ‘bear’ with me as I tell you more about what I believe actually happened to Wolf and why.  I will tell you about those who have done their best to help me, and those who have betrayed me and even plotted my death.  (Actually, as my position is one of stature, the correct term is probably ‘assassination’.) In return,  I ask you to set aside just about everything you thought you knew about Wolf.  Much of the information you may be considering credible might even have even been deliberately disseminated by some with a hidden agenda.

(This painting of me as a young adult was done by my Great-Aunt Marge.  She was a professional artist in Chicago, where I was born.)

*M4B=Mozart For Believers