Last night I experienced Brigham Young University’s performance of Le nozze di Figaro—The Marriage of Figaro. Directed by Lawrence Vincent, this delightful opera thoroughly captivated my attention from beginning to end. The subtle phrasing, voice inflections, detailed hand gestures, disciplined movement, wonderful character development and subdued spectacle enchanted me so much I suspended any disbelief for over three hours!
Sam Smiley, the author of Playwriting: The Structure of Action (one of my favorite textbooks as an undergrad), said art can provide an “intense awareness of life” and that the formal term for this “full human response to art is aesthetic reaction.” I felt this aesthetic reaction, this “heightened consciousness” while watching the opera. I was so delighted by the interplay of all of the elements of the production. It was so intoxicating! And I thought several times during the performance that I hadn’t been so entertained in quite a while. And the entertainment was just good, clean fun!
The opera was also an impressive physical tour de force for the performers both on stage and in the orchestra pit. Kory Katseanes conducted the BYU Philharmonic, consisting of about 90 students. Backed up by a full ensemble of voices, the chorus beautifully rounded out the principal players. The audience responded with a long standing ovation and may other various screaming-with-delight types of sounds.
I am so appreciative of all who helped in any way to put together this production! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
A Sunday. The Sabbath. A day for family to gather and share memories about loved ones who have passed away. A day to do genealogy and family history.
At WorldVitalRecords.com (our data site), we are developing tools to allow users to have a rich experience with family history and genealogy and that will allow them to share that rich experience with their families.
We have two applications right now where users can upload their family tree and then invite others to help with the tree or just view the tree.
Our free social networking application, FamilyLink.com, has a Family Tree Viewer, which allows individuals to upload their family tree and expand it with the help of local genealogists from all over the world. When individuals upload their family trees, they can quickly connect with other genealogists who live in the same places they are researching who can help them extend their trees by finding records they could not easily access for themselves.
For example, suppose an individual has hit a brick wall who is doing genealogical research in Sweden. With a few clicks of the mouse, this person could easily find all the individuals who are currently researching Swedish records, as well as the individuals who are living in Sweden. Plus, once a family tree has been uploaded at FamilyLink.com, individuals can easily access on a single page the top surnames of their ancestors and find other genealogists who have interest in or who are researching the same surname with just one click. FamilyLink.com does all the work.
FamilyLink has a sister application in Facebook.com called We’re Related. By last Wednesday (October 17), after being available as an application for a few days, had 23,000 users. Now, only four days later, the user base has skyrocketed to 117,158 as of 9:40 a.m. MST, October 20. Over 27,000 users installed the application over the last 24 hours.
This growth is phenomenal!
The We’re Related app has several major features: First, it allows you to search through your friends on Facebook and find all your living relatives. You indicate how you are related. For example, you can scan through your list of friends and find an individual who is your cousin, or your brother, or even your sister-in-law.
If your friends or family members are using the We’re Related app, then it will show them images of their family members and suggest if you might be related to them as well. This is a great feature because you may have family members who are Facebook users who have not been added to your list of friends on Facebook.
Using the We’re Related app, you can also upload your family tree (GEDCOM file) and compare it with your friends to see if you are related to them.
You can add the application today. First, create a Facebook.com account. Then go to www.wererelated.com. After setting up your information, invite family and friends to share in your genealogy and family history experience.