Vrindavan was where Krishna was born, lived his precocious childhood, and grew into the attractive and intoxicating youth who would lure young maidens into the forest to participate in his divine play and circle dance.
For the Staatstheater Stuttgart's production of "Das Rheingold," he put the Rhine Maidens into sleek black pant suits and made the work's setting closer to the Weimar Republic than the mythic Valhalla.
For instance, he has made a villainous Magician and his equally evil Companion (played by Javier Solano and Susan Bello) transform unwary youths and maidens into lizardlike monsters and dragonflies, guarded by a sinister Iguana (Monica Montego).
In fact he was not over-pious, refusing to see his grandfather's sets, even for the sacred "Parsifal", as holy relics; he ignored letters accusing him of betraying German culture when he allowed a communist salute during "Tannhäuser", or when a French "Ring" of 1976 put turbines on the Rhine and turned the Rhine-maidens into whores.
One year — this is one of the many stories he told me — posted along the Indus, he developed a sportsman's fascination with mugger crocodiles, which were to be found in great numbers basking along the banks of the river, and which were reputed to lure maidens into their scaly arms, and certainly did occasionally dine on a fisherman.
One year this is one of the many stories he told me posted along the Indus, he developed a sportsman's fascination with mugger crocodiles, which were to be found in great numbers basking along the banks of the river, and which were reputed to lure maidens into their scaly arms, and certainly did occasionally dine on a fisherman.
I've been hooked on festivals ever since I attended my first Glastonbury aged 12. Thankfully that maiden voyage into the land of unlimited hedonism wasn't my first foray into class A inebriation that came later.
A story about a maiden turned into a swan may sound overly familiar by now.
His campaign, a maiden voyage into politics, was expensive but relatively smooth sailing.
