[Magdalen] La Ligne Maginot

[cantor03 at aol.com]

My daughter recently toured Alsace and Lorraine in France.  She visited one of theMaginot Line installations after Colmar and the Isenheim Altarpiece at the MuseeD'Unterlinden.  I reminded her that as a family, we had been there and done thatback when we lived in nearby Frankfurt/M, Germany
The Maginot concrete bunkers built to fend off German invasion, were useless, ofcourse, because the Germans just blew them up from their backsides,  Each installationhad two heavily armed concrete bubbles connected by a little narrow gauge railway, andI recall the kids loving that little rail connection.
The Isenheim Altarpiece made a strong impression when we saw it at D'Unterlinden,and it was, interestingly, used in sections for the New York Opera Company (not theMet, but the other opera company there at the time) for their production of the rarelyperformed Paul Hindemuth opera, "Mathis de Mahler."  that has a Reformationaltheme.  The opera sets used various sections of the altarpiece, especially theResurrection, which, when initially revealed when the curtain was drawn, was simplystupefying to me.  Much as I love the music of Hindemuth, I was totally absorbed inthe depiction of the Resurrection a la Isenheim.


David Strang.