The opera Simón Bolívar by Thea Musgrave was a joint commission by the Los Angeles Music Centre and Scottish Opera . Born in Scotland in 1928 Musgrave studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, knew Benjamin Britten , and has lived in the United States since 1974. For more on Thea Musgrave, and other women composers, follow this path . Thea Musgrave's two act opera tells the story of the Venezuelan folk hero Simón Bolívar (1783-1830), who liberated six South American countries from Spanish colonial rule. Bolívar was a passionate idealist, and brilliantly successful freedom fighter (he is seen in the painting above finalising his campaign). But he failed to unite the liberated countries under one flag, and today they are the independent states of Venezuela , Colombia , Ecuador , Peru , Panama , and Bolivia . In the 21st century Simón Bolívar is still revered for defeating the Spanish and liberating the region from colonial domination. There is no commercial recording of the opera Si...
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(from Peter Brown's wonderful 'World of Late Antiquity')
For 'crude Christian monotheism' read fundamentalist Islam in our own times.
b.
'A Coptic priest was shot dead Saturday on al-Sentral Street in the North Sinai neighbourhood of al-Masaeed.
Gunmen shot dead a Coptic Christian priest in Egypt's lawless region in the third recorded instance of sectarian violence against Christians since President Mohamed Morsy was ousted.
The shooting in the coastal city of Arish was one of several attacks believed to be by Islamist insurgents that included firing at four military checkpoints in the region, the sources said.
A security source said Saturday that gunmen riding a motorcycle shot dead the priest, named as 39-year-old Mena Aboud Sharoben, who lived in Arish.
The source added the motivations behind the murder were not known.
Maspero Youth Union meanwhile denounced what they identified as Muslim Brotherhood attacks on churches, claiming sectarian attacks aimed at hurting the revolution and undermining people's demands for freedom.
"The president's supporters attacked [the] churches in Luxor, Qena, Minya, Towa, Sharm el-Sheikh and Marsa Matrouh," the statement said.
"We say to them, tear down all the churches, it is not going to stop us from building Egypt...We will use the stones of our churches to build our homeland."
The attack comes one day after unidentified gunmen launched simultaneous attacks with heavy weapons on security checkpoints in North Sinai, killing five police officers and a soldier, Reuters reported.
Morsy's Muslim Brotherhood has fiercely criticized Coptic Pope Tawadros II, the spiritual leader of Egypt's eight million Christians, for giving his blessing to the removal of the president and attending the announcement by armed forces commander General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi suspending the constitution'.
'http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/update-coptic-priest-killed-activists-blame-mb-sectarianism