{"id":48128,"date":"2024-10-11T13:38:56","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T11:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/0b5b8410-01fd-48aa-b9da-a52271e26367"},"modified":"2024-10-11T15:07:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T13:07:16","slug":"sex-violence-racism-misogyny-just-how-offensive-to-modern-tastes-are-the-great-operas","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/sex-violence-racism-misogyny-just-how-offensive-to-modern-tastes-are-the-great-operas\/","title":{"rendered":"Sex, violence, racism, misogyny: just how offensive to modern tastes are the great operas ?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rssexcerpt\"><\/p><p class=\"rssauthor\">By <\/p><p class=\"rssbyline\">Published: Friday, 11 October 2024 at 11:38 AM<\/p><hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/><?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"yes\"?>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body><p>In\u00a01995, Seattle Opera experienced a minor crisis when patrons found its production of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/georges-bizet\">Georges Bizet<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s opera <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/bizet-carmen-what-listen-next\"><strong>Carmen<\/strong><\/a><\/em> too risqu\u00e9. <em>The Seattle Times<\/em> published a series of impassioned letters to the editor that seem to anticipate modern social media fury. <\/p><p>\u2018This\u00a0<em>Carmen<\/em>\u00a0exudes violence and vulgarity,\u2019 wrote one reader. \u2018I would be ashamed to take my mother, and afraid to take my child.\u2019 Another reader fumed: \u2018Tasteful? I should say not! It was repulsive! Let\u2019s keep everything in its place, and leave the operas the way the composers intended.\u2019<\/p><p>Critics defended the production, which director Keith Warner set in 1950s Spain. But when Seattle Opera staged Bizet\u2019s opera again earlier this year, visitors to its website were met with a warning label of sorts: a PG-13 rating, which in the US system of movie ratings signifies that \u2018some material may be inappropriate for children under 13\u2019. The stated reasons for the rating included a sexually explicit staging, violence against women, and cigarette smoking.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Carmen 34-second Trailer\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Bzdu5JNQcPk?list=PLWpqPsEHuRYZOPFARngbCbJ966gnhU-R5\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Opera companies are adding movie-style content ratings<\/h2><p>In an attempt to shield their productions from complaining parents (or donors), a handful of American opera companies have added movie-style content ratings to their websites. \u2018We don\u2019t want audiences to be taken unawares by either some content or style of production,\u2019 said Marc A Scorca, president and CEO of Opera America, a service organisation for the opera field.<\/p><p>A Dallas Opera production of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/mozart\">Mozart<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s great opera <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/mozarts-don-giovanni-best-recordings\">Don Giovanni<\/a><\/strong><\/em> recently drew an R rating \u2013 for \u2018restricted\u2019 \u2013 in accordance with the title character\u2019s predatory behaviour towards women. English National Opera offers a softer \u2018suggested age guidance\u2019: for ages 11 and upwards.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Opera in Brief: Don Giovanni\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/G3pZL1Ykg7Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><p>But just as America\u2019s film ratings system has been historically criticised for allegedly promoting self-censorship, some opera-watchers question whether the movie-style ratings are the tip of a larger, more troubling tendency. They argue that there is a growing willingness to tinker with librettos that not only contain risqu\u00e9 material but also carry vestiges of 18th- and 19th-century racism and misogyny.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8216;Sex has always been part of opera&#8217;<\/h2><p>\u2018It\u2019s very strange,\u2019 said University of Kansas musicologist Martin Nedbal, who is author of the book <em>Morality and Viennese Opera in the Age of Mozart and Beethoven<\/em>. \u2018Things such as sex in opera have always been part of the art form, and it has always been a major attraction of musical theatre in general. [But] there\u2019s a big contradiction between trying to make it as tame as possible and, at the same time, attract as many different kinds of audiences as possible.\u2019<\/p><p>In a related development, a South Dakota company called Tasteful Titles supplies sanitised versions of opera and choral music texts to performers. For <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/carmina-burana-guide-best-recordings\">Carmina Burana<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/carl-orff\">Carl Orff<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s famous <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/what-is-a-cantata\">cantata<\/a><\/strong> based on profane medieval verses, it claims to provide toned-down translations of racy passages like \u2018Si puer cum puellula\u2019 (If a boy with a girl). Clients have included the Cleveland Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphony, the latter of which also used the company\u2019s translation of Mozart\u2019s <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/best-recordings-mozart-magic-flute\">The Magic Flute<\/a><\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8216;A bawdy libretto is kind of the whole point&#8217;<\/h2><p>Tasteful Titles\u2019s representatives did not respond to requests for comment. Last year, co-founder Katherine Peterson described its approach to <em>Carmina Burana<\/em> to the Sioux Falls <em>Argus Leader<\/em>. \u2018It was a matter of knowing what was said,\u2019 she said, \u2018and then searching in the English language for another way of expressing that same idea, but maybe not quite as earthily\u00a0as the early century singers had done.\u2019 Twitter users quickly chimed in. \u2018Maybe it\u2019s just me, but a bawdy libretto is kind of the whole point of <em>Carmina Burana<\/em>,\u2019 quipped Brian Lauritzen, a host and producer at Classical KUSC in Los Angeles.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Carl Orff - Carmina Burana &quot;14. In taberna quando sumus&quot;, Conductor: Adel Shalaby \u0639\u0627\u062f\u0644 \u0634\u0644\u0628\u0649\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YkgX8PUA3F8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><p>Nedbal contends that the same companies that tout their faithfulness to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/why-the-early-music-revolution-of-the-1970s-was-truly-a-moment-to-savour\">period instruments<\/a><\/strong><br\/>and musical authenticity believe \u2018the text does not matter as much, and it is OK to tamper<br\/>with it, especially when such tampering produces a conveniently sanitised product.\u2019\u00a0<\/p><p>He cites <em>The Magic Flute<\/em> as a perennial challenge for opera producers. For many opera-goers, Mozart\u2019s late masterpiece is an enchanting fairytale about princes and princesses, a bird catcher and a damsel in distress. <\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Casual sexism, racial caricatures, white male privilege<\/h2><p>But a closer reading of the libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder presents a lengthy inventory of casual sexism, racial caricatures and white male privilege. The most offensive character, Monostatos \u2013 a \u2018wicked Moor\u2019 \u2013 sings a second-act aria about a black man\u2019s lust for a white woman. At times, the racist lines are expunged, though some companies keep the original German and rewrite the supertitles.\u00a0\u2018There are certainly good reasons for directors to want to change that, but to some extent, it\u2019s censorship because it suppresses the original text of the work,\u2019 said Nedbal. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Magic Flute \u2013 Alles f\u00fchlt der Liebe Freuden (Peter Bronder; The Royal Opera)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MIalauc8Riw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><p>Another, perhaps preferable solution, he says, involves casting Monostatos as a grotesque rather than the outdated practice of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/soprano-angel-blue-cancels-arena-di-verona-debut-in-response-to-anna-netrebko-blackface-scandal\">blackface<\/a><\/strong>. \u2018It fits because the opera is so magical to begin with. Instead of a black man they turn him into some sort of a bizarre creature.\u2019 A 2019 Glyndebourne Festival production presented Monostatos as a 19th-century hotel worker who carries coal to feed the furnace, his face covered in soot. The text was unchanged.<\/p><p>Other companies have taken greater licence with problematic librettos. Mozart\u2019s <em>Abduction from the Seraglio<\/em>, about a comic abduction from a Turkish harem of two European women by their boyfriends, was reimagined in a 2018 Canadian Opera Company production. Among other changes, Lebanese-Canadian writer Wajdi Mouawad introduced new spoken dialogue to highlight the European characters\u2019 xenophobia. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A now controversial portrayal of Monostatos from Mozart&#8217;s The Magic Flute. Pic: Ira Nowinski\/Corbis\/VCG via Getty Images &#8211; Ira Nowinski\/Corbis\/VCG via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8216;You need to dial it back a bit&#8217;<\/h2><p>Last April, a co-production of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/giacomo-puccini\">Puccini<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/madam-butterfly\">Madam Butterfly<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Los Angeles\u2019s Pacific Opera Project and Houston\u2019s Opera in the Heights had the American characters sing in English and the Japanese sing in Japanese. The switch from the original Italian was intended to highlight cultural barriers in the Orientalist story of a Japanese geisha who is jilted by an American naval officer.\u00a0<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/what-happened-at-the-premiere-of-madame-butterfly\">What happened at the premiere of <em>Madam Butterfly<\/em>?<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>Yet what plays in Los Angeles or Glyndebourne may not succeed in other markets. Dallas Opera gives its <em>Magic Flute <\/em>a PG-13 rating because of both the libretto and production elements, according to Carrie Ellen Adamian, the company\u2019s director of marketing and ticket sales. The company must be alert to matters like suggestive choreography, in case parents bringing their children are hoping for a wholesome afternoon at the matinee.<\/p><p>\u2018We have a more conservative crowd than you would in New York or Chicago or San Francisco,\u2019 says Adamian. \u2018They are very appreciative that we take the time and effort to rate operas according to the standards of artistic integrity, and to make sure we\u2019re not offending anyone.\u2019\u00a0<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/best-operas-for-beginners\">Five best operas for beginners<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>This presents challenges when productions are imported from other houses, however. \u2018Our general director and artistic team have had to go to the creative team and say, \u201cYou need to dial it back a bit for this market\u201d.\u2019<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Even Mozart had to be careful around the censors<\/h2><p>Opera has never been isolated from the grubby compromises of show business. From early on, composers and librettists were forced to comply with the agendas of government officials and theatre owners. Vienna established an official system of theatre censorship in 1770 under Emperor Joseph II and, as Nedbal notes, Mozart and his librettist Da Ponte often had to curb their creative instincts (or switch to a foreign language like Italian) in order to avoid bans.<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/six-best-mozart-operas\">Six of the best Mozart operas<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>Nineteenth-century Italy was particularly fraught. Censors compelled the heroine of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/gaetano-donizetti\">Donizetti<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s <em>Maria Padilla<\/em> to die of happiness \u2013 literally \u2013 rather than suicide, as originally indicated in the libretto. Before Rossini\u2019s <em>L\u2019Italiana in Algeri<\/em> got the green light, censors also applied their erasers to the aria, \u2018Pensa alla patria\u2019 (\u2018Think of your country\u2019), in which the soprano rhapsodises about a unified Italy. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/giuseppe-verdi\">Verdi<\/a><\/strong> and his librettists also changed aspects of <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/rigoletto-a-guide-to-verdis-great-opera-and-its-best-recordings\">Rigoletto<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, <em>Un ballo in maschera<\/em> and <em>La forza del destino<\/em> to comply with the authorities.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Marilyn Horne - Pensa alla Patria 'L'Italiana in Algeri'\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DAdWEn0vfFA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8216;Some works are of their time, and need to be put to rest&#8217;<\/h2><p>Still, do ratings unduly force audiences to pre-judge a work? Might a composer or librettist think twice about a creative choice for fear that their opera might get slapped with an \u2018R\u2019 rating? And at the same time, how should companies proceed with canonic works that contain troubling material?<\/p><p>Marc Scorca of Opera America believes it comes down to astute directorial choices. \u2018Are there some different ways of telling the stories of our inherited repertoire? Certainly. Can some of the stories be told in a way that creates greater agency for the victims, frequently women? Absolutely.\u2019<\/p><p>And there are works \u2018that are very much of their time, and perhaps need to be put to rest for a while\u2019. Scorca points to once-popular operas by <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/meyerbeer-giacomo\">Giacomo Meyerbeer<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/jules-massenet\">Jules Massenet<\/a><\/strong> that are now rarely staged. \u2018Our industry has cycled through repertoire preferences over the decades, and we will continue to do that. I certainly think that there is forever a process of examining the repertoire and figuring out what continues to have currency and what doesn\u2019t.\u2019 \u00a0<\/p><p><em>This article first appeared in the December 2019 issue of BBC Music Magazine<\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Published: Friday, 11 October 2024 at 11:38 AM In\u00a01995, Seattle Opera experienced a minor crisis when patrons found its production of Georges Bizet\u2019s opera Carmen too risqu\u00e9. The Seattle Times published a series of impassioned letters to the editor that seem to anticipate modern social media fury. \u2018This\u00a0Carmen\u00a0exudes violence and vulgarity,\u2019 wrote one reader. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":48129,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"7"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/sex-violence-racism-misogyny-just-how-offensive-to-modern-tastes-are-the-great-operas.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/sex-violence-racism-misogyny-just-how-offensive-to-modern-tastes-are-the-great-operas-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/sex-violence-racism-misogyny-just-how-offensive-to-modern-tastes-are-the-great-operas-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/sex-violence-racism-misogyny-just-how-offensive-to-modern-tastes-are-the-great-operas-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/sex-violence-racism-misogyny-just-how-offensive-to-modern-tastes-are-the-great-operas-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/sex-violence-racism-misogyny-just-how-offensive-to-modern-tastes-are-the-great-operas.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/sex-violence-racism-misogyny-just-how-offensive-to-modern-tastes-are-the-great-operas.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Friday, 11 October 2024 at 11:38 AM In\u00a01995, Seattle Opera experienced a minor crisis when patrons found its production of Georges Bizet\u2019s opera Carmen too risqu\u00e9. The Seattle Times published a series of impassioned letters to the editor that seem to anticipate modern social media fury. \u2018This\u00a0Carmen\u00a0exudes violence and vulgarity,\u2019 wrote one reader.&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/48128"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}