Latest news with #Ousley
eNCA
a day ago
- Entertainment
- eNCA
Versailles orchestra plays New York in 'Affair of the Poisons'
NEW YORK - Acrobatics, fortune tellers, opulent gowns and palace intrigue: The New York debut of the Versailles Royal Opera Orchestra was a performance befitting the era it recalls. Monday's immersive show "Versailles in Printemps: The Affair of the Poisons" centered on France's 17th-century period of excess and seediness that its creator, Andrew Ousley, told AFP has parallels to the present day. At the evening staged in Manhattan's new Printemps luxury emporium, guests and performers alike donned velvet waistcoats, silky corsets, feathered headdresses and powdered makeup. Core to the performance's tale was the discovery of arsenic, Ousley said -- the first "untraceable, untasteable poison." "Everybody was just poisoning everybody." And at the web's center? A midwife and fortune teller named La Voisin, he said, a "shadowy-like person who basically would peddle poison, peddle solutions, peddle snake oil." "She was the nexus," Ousley continued, in a scheme that "extended up to Louis XIV, his favorite mistresses" -- inner circles rife with backstabbing and murder plots. The poisoning scandal resulted in a tribunal that resulted in dozens of death sentences -- until the king called it off when it "got a little too close to home," Ousley said with a smile. "To me, it speaks to the present moment -- that this rot can fester underneath luxury and wealth when it's divorced from empathy, from humanity." Along with a programme of classical music, the performance included elaborately costumed dancers, including one who tip-toed atop a line of wine bottles in sparkling platform heels. The Versailles Royal Opera Orchestra formed in 2019, and its first stateside tour is underway: the series of shows kicked off at Festival Napa Valley in California before heading to New York. On Wednesday, it will play another, more traditional show at L'Alliance New York, a French cultural centre in Manhattan.
Bangkok Post
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Bangkok Post
Versailles orchestra plays New York in 'Affair of the Poisons'
NEW YORK — Acrobatics, fortune tellers, opulent gowns and palace intrigue: the New York debut of the Versailles Royal Opera Orchestra was a performance befitting the era it recalls. Monday's immersive show " Versailles in Printemps: The Affair of the Poisons" centred on France's 17th-century period of excess and seediness that its creator, Andrew Ousley, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) has parallels to the present day. At the evening staged in Manhattan's new Printemps luxury emporium, guests and performers alike donned velvet waistcoats, silky corsets, feathered headdresses and powdered makeup. Core to the performance's tale was the discovery of arsenic, Ousley said -- the first "untraceable, untasteable poison." "Everybody was just poisoning everybody." And at the web's center? A midwife and fortune teller named La Voisin, he said, a "shadowy-like person who basically would peddle poison, peddle solutions, peddle snake oil." "She was the nexus," Ousley continued, in a scheme that "extended up to Louis XIV, his favorite mistresses" -- inner circles rife with backstabbing and murder plots. The poisoning scandal resulted in a tribunal that resulted in dozens of death sentences -- until the king called it off when it "got a little too close to home," Ousley said with a smile. "To me, it speaks to the present moment -- that this rot can fester underneath luxury and wealth when it's divorced from empathy, from humanity." Along with a program of classical music, the performance included elaborately costumed dancers, including one who tip-toed atop a line of wine bottles in sparkling platform heels. The drag opera artist Creatine Price was the celebrant of the evening's so-called " Black Mass," and told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the night was "a beautiful way to sort of incorporate the ridiculousness, the campness, the farce of Versailles with a modern edge." Drag is "resistance," she said, adding that her act is "the essence of speaking truth to power, because it really flies in the face of everything in the opera that is standard, whether it's about gender or voice type." Period instruments The Versailles Royal Opera Orchestra formed in 2019, and its first stateside tour is underway: the series of shows kicked off at Festival Napa Valley in California before heading to New York. On Wednesday it will play another, more traditional show at L'Alliance New York, a French cultural center in Manhattan. The orchestra aims to champion repertoire primarily from the 17th and 18th centuries, and plays on period instruments. "Playing a historical instrument really gives me a feeling of being in contact with the era in which the music was composed," said Alexandre Fauroux, who plays the natural horn, a predecessor to the French horn distinguished by its lack of valves. Ousley runs the organisation Death of Classical, an arts non-profit that puts on classical shows in unexpected places, including the catacombs of Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery and crypts in Manhattan. Monday's spectacle included over-the-top performance, but Ousley emphasised that the evening was ultimately a celebration of classical artists. "These are players who play with such energy, to me it's more like a rock band than an orchestra," he said. "When you can sit and feel, with a group of strangers, something that you know you feel together -- that's why I work, because of that shared connection, experience and transcendence."
Int'l Business Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Int'l Business Times
Versailles Orchestra Plays New York In 'Affair Of The Poisons'
Acrobatics, fortune tellers, opulent gowns and palace intrigue: the New York debut of the Versailles Royal Opera Orchestra was a performance befitting the era it recalls. Monday's immersive show "Versailles in Printemps: The Affair of the Poisons" centered on France's 17th-century period of excess and seediness that its creator, Andrew Ousley, told AFP has parallels to the present day. At the evening staged in Manhattan's new Printemps luxury emporium, guests and performers alike donned velvet waistcoats, silky corsets, feathered headdresses and powdered makeup. Core to the performance's tale was the discovery of arsenic, Ousley said -- the first "untraceable, untasteable poison." "Everybody was just poisoning everybody." And at the web's center? A midwife and fortune teller named La Voisin, he said, a "shadowy-like person who basically would peddle poison, peddle solutions, peddle snake oil." "She was the nexus," Ousley continued, in a scheme that "extended up to Louis XIV, his favorite mistresses" -- inner circles rife with backstabbing and murder plots. The poisoning scandal resulted in a tribunal that resulted in dozens of death sentences -- until the king called it off when it "got a little too close to home," Ousley said with a smile. "To me, it speaks to the present moment -- that this rot can fester underneath luxury and wealth when it's divorced from empathy, from humanity." Along with a program of classical music, the performance included elaborately costumed dancers, including one who tip-toed atop a line of wine bottles in sparkling platform heels. The drag opera artist Creatine Price was the celebrant of the evening's so-called "Black Mass," and told AFP that the night was "a beautiful way to sort of incorporate the ridiculousness, the campness, the farce of Versailles with a modern edge." Drag is "resistance," she said, adding that her act is "the essence of speaking truth to power, because it really flies in the face of everything in the opera that is standard, whether it's about gender or voice type." The Versailles Royal Opera Orchestra formed in 2019, and its first stateside tour is underway: the series of shows kicked off at Festival Napa Valley in California before heading to New York. On Wednesday it will play another, more traditional show at L'Alliance New York, a French cultural center in Manhattan. The orchestra aims to champion repertoire primarily from the 17th and 18th centuries, and plays on period instruments. "Playing a historical instrument really gives me a feeling of being in contact with the era in which the music was composed," said Alexandre Fauroux, who plays the natural horn, a predecessor to the French horn distinguished by its lack of valves. Ousley runs the organization Death of Classical, an arts non-profit that puts on classical shows in unexpected places, including the catacombs of Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery and crypts in Manhattan. Monday's spectacle included over-the-top performance, but Ousley emphasized that the evening was ultimately a celebration of classical artists. "These are players who play with such energy, to me it's more like a rock band than an orchestra," he said. And the mission of putting on such shows is about something bigger, Ousley said: "How do you fight against the darkness that seems to be winning in the world?" "When you can sit and feel, with a group of strangers, something that you know you feel together -- that's why I work, because of that shared connection, experience and transcendence." The drag opera artist Creatine Price was the celebrant of a recent so-called "Black Mass" at a night of classical music and performance art in lower Manhattan AFP The Versailles Royal Opera Orchestra performs at the Printemps store in Lower Manhattan July 21, 2025 during a show called "Versailles in Printemps: The Affair of the Poisons" AFP Madame Athénaïs de Montespan played by Erin Dillon joins other performance artists at the Printemps store for a performance of the Versailles Royal Opera Orchestra AFP At the evening staged in Manhattan's new Printemps luxury emporium, which opened on Wall Street on March 1, guests and performers alike donned velvet waistcoats, silky corsets, feathered headdresses and powdery makeup AFP Monday's immersive show "The Affair of the Poisons" centered on France's 17th-century time of excess and seediness that its creator, Andrew Ousley, told AFP has parallels to the present day AFP
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Motorcyclist dies in two-vehicle crash on Interstate 75 in Warren County
A Middletown man died in a two-vehicle crash on Interstate 75 in Warren County early Saturday, Ohio State Highway Patrol officials said. According to an early investigation, Samual Ousley, 32, was driving a 2020 Kawasaki ZX-10R motorcycle south on I-75 at approximately 12:39 a.m. in Turtlecreek Township, the patrol's Lebanon Post said. Ousley then struck a 2011 Honda CR-V, which was also traveling south, from behind. He was thrown from the motorcycle and died at the scene. The driver of the CR-V traveled off the left side of the roadway and struck the concrete median barrier before coming to a final rest. He sustained minor injuries and was treated at the scene by EMS personnel. The Lebanon Post is investigating the crash. The Highway Patrol said it was assisted on scene by the Middletown Fire Department, the Franklin Township Fire Department, Case Towing and Jacob's Towing. This story was updated to add a video. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Motorcyclist dies in two-vehicle crash on I-75 in Warren County
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kansas Democrat tries to extend restriction on tax dollars for candy and soda to legislator pay
Rep. Jarrod Ousley, D-Merriam, appears during a Feb. 10, 2025, hearing of the House Child Welfare and Foster Care Committee. (Grace Hills/ Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — A Kansas Democrat proposed prohibiting lawmakers from using their $178 per diem for purchasing soda, candy, alcoholic beverages and hot meals, the same things Republicans are trying to restrict for purchase under a government food assistance program. Rep. Jarrod Ousley, a Democrat from Merriam, offered an amendment Thursday while legislators on the House Welfare Reform Committee discussed House Bill 2015. The legislation, along with Senate Bill 79, would direct the secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, which administers the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to request a waiver that would allow the agency to eliminate soft drinks and candy from the list of eligible food products under the program. Ousley's amendment applied the same prohibitions to legislator per diem pay as those applied to SNAP in Kansas, including proposed bans on purchasing candy and soda. Alcohol, cigarettes and hot foods are already prohibited for purchase under Kansas' food assistance restrictions. 'I think what's good for the goose is good for the gander,' Ousley said. Some legislators flashed amused smiles as they thumbed through the printed pages of Ousley's amendment. Others had puzzled frowns. Rep. Carrie Barth, a Republican from Baldwin City, challenged the germaneness of the amendment, a function of House rules that calls into question the relevance of a legislative action. 'We're looking at apples and oranges here, a little bit,' Barth said. 'You know, we're looking at public assistance versus legislative pay. We're looking at W2 benefit employee pay versus a SNAP public assistance program. Completely opposite things.' Rep. Ford Carr, a Wichita Democrat, begged to differ. 'Taxpayer dollars are taxpayer dollars,' he said. The committee's chairman, Republican Rep. Francis Awerkamp of St. Marys, allowed committee members to discuss the amendment. 'I think if we're going to sit here from this committee table and tell people what's good for them — and that we know what's best for them — that perhaps we ought to take a spoonful of our own medicine,' Ousley said. He called the bill 'poor shaming.' 'And shame on us for that,' he said. The committee rejected Ousley's amendment but gave approval to the bill.
