The Chautauquan Daily

Before he was the abbot of a Zen Buddhist center, Michael O’Sullivan was a New York City detective for 20 years. You read that right. In fact, if it weren’t for an accident while he was on the job, O’Sullivan might not have discovered meditation at all.

In 1978, the Rev. Anthony Campolo came to Chautauqua and spoke for the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle on William Easum’s Sacred Cows make Gourmet Burgers. Since that time, he has returned to Chautauqua frequently to speak from various pulpits on the grounds. He returns as the Week Three chaplain beginning at the 10:45 a.m. Sunday-morning worship service. His sermon title is “An Emerging Church for a Post-Modern Era.” His Scripture is Matthew 6:25-30. He will speak about his faith journey at the 5 p.m. Sunday Vespers and at the 9:15 a.m. morning worship service Monday through Friday.

The younger set of Chautuauqua Fund donors opened the 2011 Season by greeting old faces and meeting new friends at President Tom Becker’s cottage on Saturday evening. The Beckers held the reception to welcome the NOW Generation back to the Institution. The NOW Generation is a group of Chautauqua Fund donors who are less than 50 years old.

“Can I share some space?” It’s the question that Hugh Butler, president of the Chautauqua Property Owners Association, wants Chautauquans to ask again this season. CPOA is beginning the second summer of its Shared Space Initiative. Butler said this summer is less about spreading the Shared Space logo and more about knowing and practicing the idea behind it.

Masks, clown noses and a silly show are scheduled to take place at 10:30 p.m. Saturday at the Chautauqua Theater Company’s Late Night Mask Show. The show will take place outside rehearsal shacks 64 and 65. Although it falls during Week Two programming dates, the show will take on the theme from Week Three, which is “American Intelligence: Technology, Espionage and Alliances,” said Artistic Director Vivienne Benesch.

Chautauqua offers many activities for youth and adults, but a certain age group is still looking for a place to connect. These topics were at the center of the second weekly Trustees’ Porch Discussion on Wednesday. Sherra Babcock, director of Chautauqua’s Department of Education, and Jack Voelker, director of recreation and youth services, led the discussion, titled “Creating Family Experiences.”

Sex, rivalry, secret identities, extortion, poisonings, sword fights and murder. Sound like a typical evening in Chautauqua?

For one night only, opera fans have the chance to see the Chautauqua debut of Giuseppe Verdi’s rarely-performed work, Luisa Miller. The Chautauqua Opera will perform the work in Italian with English subtitles. Maestro Joseph Colaneri will conduct members of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra at 8:15 p.m. Saturday in the Amphitheater.

Is it so unreasonable to experience a Chicken Little “the sky is falling” response to the current cascading changes in the international order that Americans have expected since the end of World War II? Even an informed, attentive response to news of the “Arab Spring,” the rise of China, the economic crisis in Western democracies, might include looking up to be reassured that the sky isn’t falling.

Smoking is popular in the Czech Republic. When the Czech government considered raising the tax on those cigarettes — the very ones that kill thousands of people each year — major cigarette corporation Philip Morris was very unhappy. Philip Morris presented a cost-benefit analysis on the effects of raising the tax on the national budget.

“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it,” reads Hebrews 13:2. “I have always loved this,” E.J. Dionne said.

An opera production derives from the music, not the other way around, said Jay Lesenger, artistic/general director of Chautauqua Opera Company. Sometimes directors will have a concept in mind before delving into a production, but Lesenger said he believes in a firm understanding of opera and its traditions before interpreting the music for the stage. “I’m not of the school that I have to do something different to make it true,” Lesenger said. “I’m all for innovation, but that’s not how I go about looking at a piece. I don’t say, ‘How can we do this differently?’ I just say, ‘How can we do it well?’”

From their porch at the Keystone, Ed Anderson and Joan Parsons can look down to the street below them where Anderson’s children, and now their grandchildren, learned to ride their bicycles, and across to the trees that Anderson, as a birder, studies with a careful eye. Chautauqua is as much a part of Anderson and Parsons’ lives as they are a part of the Institution; this is their second season sponsoring the Scholar in Residence program, which ran from Tuesday to Thursday.

At 9:30 a.m., Sylvia Faust’s grandchildren are all down at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club, and Faust has a rare quiet moment. For most of the summer, this year-round Chautauqua resident has a full house. Faust’s two children and five grandchildren spend much of the season with her, and she channels their energy into her own volunteer work on the grounds. Faust, a Chautauquan for almost a half-century, serves on the Chautauqua Foundation’s planned giving committee.

In the music world, teachers are family. Musicians can trace the lineage of their instructors through generations, forming a musical genealogical web. Technique, fingerings and style are inherited from those teachers, but for students, after months and even years of working with the same teacher, it’s not about the basics. It’s about the personal connection that drives students to work even harder in the practice room because it is no longer a teacher who inspired them; it is a life-long friend.

In the past two weeks, the Chautauqua School of Music has held master classes with some of the most seasoned professionals in the music industry. These teachers have had successful solo and chamber music careers, and most hold positions in the most prestigious conservatories in the country. Alexander Gavrylyuk is also a seasoned professional, soloing at major concert halls around the world and winning all the big-name competitions. Gavrylyuk holds his own on the list of distinguished master class coaches, but he’s only in his 20s.