In February 2022, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City hosted a production of Beethoven’s opera Fidelio, produced by Heartbeat Opera. The opera is an Enlightenment paean to freedom and to marital love. In Beethoven’s version of the opera, a wife disguises herself as a male prison guard to free her husband from a Spanish fortress; at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fidelio became a Black Lives Matter critique of mass incarceration.
At least in Maoist China, the commies wrote their propaganda operas from scratch, as far as I know. Tampering with the classics of European musical compositions is like an amateur painting a camo pattern on a Ferrari in his garage, or turning a Rolls-Royce into a lowrider. It's far worse than either of those two examples, actually, because the bastardization of art has the aim of pushing a narrative that is inimical to truth, order and even sanity.
I have to wonder how offended these people would be if a group they considered "red neck" or "MAGAts" were to use a modified version of the same Beethoven opera as a critique of one of their favorite causes?
ReplyDeleteWhy, call the FBI, have those cultural terrorists thrown in jail!!!
Afraid that train has already sailed, Paco.
ReplyDeleteThanks to modern entertainment, we now have a black Cleopatra, a black Ann Boleyn, a black Queen Charlotte, and find that the vikings had black warrior queens.
I wonder why they cannot tell stories of actual black people in history? Like, say for example, Alexandre Dumas? Or even his father, who was one of Napoleon's generals? Or you want a story of a black African queen, why not Ravanalova of Madagascar, which is as spicy a story as you'll find anywhere, and so far as I know has been ignored by pop culture, save for one Flashman novel by George McDonald Fraser?
Seriously, if you want "Yassss slay Kween!" you won't get any more literal than Queen Ranavalova.
If they want a ruthless black queen, there's no better example than the murderous Winnie Mandela. Also, there's the Zulu's "Mother of Elephants". Although, come to think of it, Shaka Zulu was kind of mama's boy, so maybe not.
ReplyDeleteThey don't create, they steal and destroy what geniuses create and normal folks enjoy.
ReplyDeleteWhat was it Iowahawk said?
Identify a respected institution, kill it and wear it as a skinsuit while demanding respect.
Same concept.
This has become a common occurrence, often justified as trying to make a classic work "relevant." It seems particular prevalent in Germany where I spend considerable time. Traditional staging of opera is seen as mundane. The examples in this article seem particularly klutzy. You have to wonder, aren't these the same people who go on rants about cultural misappropriation? And there's a significant movement from the left to erase Beethoven entirely, so they really should excise all of the Fidelio parts that originated with Beethoven.
ReplyDeleteStill, I am reasonably confident that Beethoven and Stravinsky will be around long after these people are forgotten.
Paint by number?
ReplyDelete