Showing posts with label Pierre Fermat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pierre Fermat. Show all posts
07 April 2012
Fermat's Last Tango
Last week, here, I provided a few lyrics from one of the songs in the musical, "Fermat's Last Tango."
Today, as a bit of a break from our heavy-duty discussion of free will in moral philosophy, I offer a bit more information.
The only performer in the cast who seems to have had a prior theatrical reputation was Christianne Tisdale (whom you see to the left of these words, if I've done this right.) Ms Tisdale plays Euclid in the AfterMath scenes - she also plays one of the nameless reporters who quiz Daniel Keane [aka Andrew Wiles] about his accomplishment at the beginning and end of the show.
Tisdale made her Broadway debut six years before the making of Fermat's Last Tango. She played the lead, Belle, in the stage version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
The rest of the cast list? There was Gilles Chiasson (Carl Friedrich Gauss/Reporter), Edwardyne Cowan (Anna Keane, supportive/suffering spouse), Mitchell Kantor (Pythagoras/Reporter), Jonathan Rabb (a wonderfully foppish Fermat), Chris Thompson (Daniel Keane) and Carrie Wilshusen (Isaac Newton/Reporter).
Props especially to Ms Cowan, who did a surprising but fitting bluesy number called "Math Widow." She is, professionally, more of a singer than an actress. IMDB tells me that she has appeared in a couple of Carnegie Hall Concerts, including "Mad About the Boy: A 100th Birthday Celebration of the Timeless Words and Music of Noel Coward."
Today, as a bit of a break from our heavy-duty discussion of free will in moral philosophy, I offer a bit more information.
The only performer in the cast who seems to have had a prior theatrical reputation was Christianne Tisdale (whom you see to the left of these words, if I've done this right.) Ms Tisdale plays Euclid in the AfterMath scenes - she also plays one of the nameless reporters who quiz Daniel Keane [aka Andrew Wiles] about his accomplishment at the beginning and end of the show.
Tisdale made her Broadway debut six years before the making of Fermat's Last Tango. She played the lead, Belle, in the stage version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
The rest of the cast list? There was Gilles Chiasson (Carl Friedrich Gauss/Reporter), Edwardyne Cowan (Anna Keane, supportive/suffering spouse), Mitchell Kantor (Pythagoras/Reporter), Jonathan Rabb (a wonderfully foppish Fermat), Chris Thompson (Daniel Keane) and Carrie Wilshusen (Isaac Newton/Reporter).
Props especially to Ms Cowan, who did a surprising but fitting bluesy number called "Math Widow." She is, professionally, more of a singer than an actress. IMDB tells me that she has appeared in a couple of Carnegie Hall Concerts, including "Mad About the Boy: A 100th Birthday Celebration of the Timeless Words and Music of Noel Coward."
29 March 2012
Fermat's Last Tango
I recently watched a DVD of the musical comedy Fermat's Last Tango, produced by The Clay Mathematics Institute.
I may discuss the production in greater depth at some point next week. Right now I'd just like to record the lyrics of one of the songs: Your Proof Contains a Hole.
Just a bit of background information first. This scene takes place in a quasi-heaven called "The AfterMath," where famous mathematicians live out their immortality. The bulk of the song is sung by Fermat, who believes his own immorality requires the insolubility of his theorem. He is singing to Daniel Keanes, a fictionalization of Andrew Wiles, who though still very much alive is visiting the AfterMath.
The chorus consists of AfterMath regulars: Euclid; Pythagoras; Newton; Gauss.
Without further ado, then....
Fermat: Your proof contains a flaw, Professor Keane,
It destroys the whole foundation of your finely tuned machine:
I hate to be a spoilsport, I know it was your goal
But your proof contains a big fat hole.
Keane: A hole?
Chorus: A hole?
Keane: My proof contains a hole?
Fermat: I didn't want to be the one to saaaay
I know this is upsetting, please show some self-control
But your proof contains a big fat hole.
I may discuss the production in greater depth at some point next week. Right now I'd just like to record the lyrics of one of the songs: Your Proof Contains a Hole.
Just a bit of background information first. This scene takes place in a quasi-heaven called "The AfterMath," where famous mathematicians live out their immortality. The bulk of the song is sung by Fermat, who believes his own immorality requires the insolubility of his theorem. He is singing to Daniel Keanes, a fictionalization of Andrew Wiles, who though still very much alive is visiting the AfterMath.
The chorus consists of AfterMath regulars: Euclid; Pythagoras; Newton; Gauss.
Without further ado, then....
Fermat: Your proof contains a flaw, Professor Keane,
It destroys the whole foundation of your finely tuned machine:
I hate to be a spoilsport, I know it was your goal
But your proof contains a big fat hole.
Keane: A hole?
Chorus: A hole?
Keane: My proof contains a hole?
Fermat: I didn't want to be the one to saaaay
I know this is upsetting, please show some self-control
But your proof contains a big fat hole.
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Knowledge is warranted belief -- it is the body of belief that we build up because, while living in this world, we've developed good reasons for believing it. What we know, then, is what works -- and it is, necessarily, what has worked for us, each of us individually, as a first approximation. For my other blog, on the struggles for control in the corporate suites, see www.proxypartisans.blogspot.com.


