Music ping
Maybe they can replace it with “Springtime for Hitler”
During the “Great Cultural Revolution” in Mao’s China, there were still operas and ballets composed and performed, but they were stupid propaganda pieces with titles like “The Peasants’ Victory Over the Evil Landlords”. Costumes and sets were replete with Mao Jackets and Stalinist Imagery, and the music was forgettable. Art became the slave of the state, and free expression was crushed.
The Visual Arts in Stalin’s Russia were completely taken over to produce a comical era of dumpy architecture, laughable posters and stupendously ugly statues.
Art in service to the state is stifling. The Met should be ashamed that they are buying into the lies of the left and calling it “Art”.
Just the humble opinion of a musician and opera fan.
I am appalled at some of the Jew baiting that is taking place on some websites devoted to opera, ever since the Met announcement that the HD broadcast (but not the in-house performances) would be cancelled.
The callousness and cruelty displayed towards Jewish groups who protested against this opera, especially the mockery of the Klinghoffer children, whose father was so brutally murdered, reminds me of some medieval hate-fest.
What is sort of strange is that this opera has been placed in its own Category (Category D) in the Met ticket brochure, with ticket prices lower than prices for any other opera they are putting on. Also, the donors who financed all the other productions are listed by name, but the donor who financed the Klinghoffer opera has asked to remain “anonymous.”
After all, in operatic drama, what difference is there between being killed by beheading or being shoved over the side of a huge ship? One death is just as dramatic as the other, right?
But I doubt if we'll ever see an opera based on Berg's tragic fate.
Furthermore, I'll bet that the Met will NEVER mount an opera based on the Crusades which pitted Christians against Muslims. There are several Crusades-based operas, including one by Verdi, in which the Muslims are the bad guys.
All this boils down to one thing, the Met will never offend today's Muslim sensibilities in their musical offerings, only those of Christians or Jews.