Friday, May 15, 2009
Scandal. Almost.
Our latest opera production nearly didn’t happen… the director saw fit to fill it with so many scenes of violence and rape and pillage --and dozens of people running around the stage half and full naked --that we got national notoriety even before the premiere performance.
I don’t know what the director had in mind. Most of the cast are of the opinion that he had a very miserable childhood and needs round-the-clock psychological counseling. My own theory is that he was hoping for a scandal for the publicity angle.
In any case I don’t intend to help his career by mentioning his name in this post.
We were all geared for the worst on opening night, but in the end the violence was no worse than you see on an average TV evening what with various war news and your run-of-the-mill crime series. The singers were good and it actually had good reviews. The director got a lively mix of cheers and loud boos, no worse than usual at a premiere.
Why anyhow is it considered worse to depict sex onstage than any number of murders? Can someone explain this to me?
After the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out I read that there was some uproar about the implied sex at the end, where they are putting their boots back on on the beach. What about the children!? Never mind all the murders in the movie, including one scene where a concubine is shot between the eyes and instantly killed right on camera. That was way more disturbing for me.
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