Today I attended a conference (if that's the right word) on Spinoza, actually I was one of the three speakers. The other two were Jonathan Israel and the mayor of Amsterdam.
I was intrigued by the mayor’s assistant – a young man with brown hair, probably also the mayor’s speech writer. This consigliere was shy and almost invisible, but I could not help noticing him. While the mayor was talking, which he did very well, the consigliere was reading something that I believed to be the mayor’s speech. The consigliere was the director and the mayor his star actor.
But what a fine director, clearly a sensitive and intelligent one.