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But since I haven’t seen it, I don’t think I am
prepared to pass judgment. Unfortunately there are many folks out there who
feel it unnecessary to actually know anything
about the production in question before they make their highly opinionated (and
usually closed-minded) proclamations. Yours truly jumped into the fray briefly.
Then I decided to sit back on the sidelines and watch. It does make for entertaining reading. Unless you’re like me, and you get
really cheesed off by over-opinionated know-it-alls who really don’t, and it just
makes you want to eat more cookies.
But, since this blog is
called Regie, or Not Regie? and the discussion
primarily is about regie vs. not
regie, I thought I’d at least share the link. The primary kerfuffle is called What are Nazis Doing in Tannhäuser?
Thanks to John of operaramblings for calling our attention to Parterre Box's commentary on today's kerfuffle: The Slipped Disc Book Club.
Thanks to John of operaramblings for calling our attention to Parterre Box's commentary on today's kerfuffle: The Slipped Disc Book Club.
Lebrecht complaining about artificially whipped up controversy? Iz ded from irony.
ReplyDeleteActually, I would give Lebrecht "credit" for a lot of the whipping. If I didn't occasionally learn something from his column, I wouldn't read it at all.
DeleteI subscribed to the follow-on comments, but just unsubscribed. It's just raising my blood pressure unnecessarily. I hate it when someone calls me "Dear Rob" in an pretense of friendship or regard, and then basically calls me an idiot for my opinions. It's like when the senator says "My esteemed colleague" but really means "that jerk over there."
The best comment is over at parterre about the Slipped Disc Book Club where members meet monthly to discuss a book they haven't read.
DeleteBWAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
DeleteFor some mysterious reason I keep reading your title as "Uniformed Opinions".
ReplyDeleteContext is everything, isn't it? :-)
DeleteI guess it is :-) And having read some of the coverage (and the commentary mentioned above), I'm finding it all a bit meta: a shocking work of art (or tasteless display, depending on whom you ask) about a shocking work of art (or tasteless display, depending on whom you ask)... Couldn't have picked a better opera.
DeleteIn my daily work, I sometimes read the word uniformed as uninformed.
Delete(The original headline for this post DID say Uniformed. I looked at it three times before noticing. (Pretty bad for someone who edits for a living.) So the first 10 or so people who looked at it DID see the word Uniformed... oops)
References to this production are popping up everywhere - Salon (which hardly ever talks about music) even had something on it, with a link to a discussion in the Guardian.
ReplyDeleteIt takes a scandal!! It's funny, I never even WANTed to see Tannhauser, but now I do.
DeleteHaving lost 24 members of my family in Nazi concentration camps, I certainly do not wish to see this Tannhäuser.
ReplyDeleteIgnorance in stage management is understandable. Anyone can be struck by this affliction.
Disrespect in the matter of crimes against humanity and using this to provoke scandal and controversy, whilst pretending that this behaviour is innovative or the expression of an "intellectual", are as unacceptable as they are pathetic.
Thanks for your comment. I don't argue that there seems to have been a lack of good judgement exercised over there.
DeleteI can understand that you and I and many others may be offended just by the concept of the two scenes. But we cannot assume that the director's primary intention was scandal and controversy. After all there are many easier, more economical and more effective ways to shock and offend people than to go to the effort of producing a whole opera.
And the point of my post, and my arguments at other blogs, is not the quality or shock value of the production, and whether or not it should be on the stage.
No, my contention is with the fact that so many people with no first-hand (or second or third or fourth) knowledge have rushed to condemn an entire production based on hearsay about one aspect of it.
Vis a vis provocation and pretense, I'm not sure Kosminski's concept was immediately dismissible as a cheap vehicle to garner reaction, though that's certainly what it's boiled down to in the English-language press (official and otherwise). Based on descriptions in the German press, I think it would depend on how the production worked in the aggregate (by which I mean across the whole run and beyond initial audience reactions).
DeleteNot to say that it wouldn't have been dismissible when all was said and done, but I would have liked the opportunity to judge that one for myself.
Well, I have to agree with you there, stray. Again, there are lots of easier, cheaper, wider-reaching ways to annoy people than to produce an opera. It really could be total trash, but now we'll never know.
DeleteI also agree with La Cieca that the opera company exhibited cowardice in caving in so quickly to the nay-sayers. From what I've heard, the negative opinion was NOT unanimous. I wonder if one of the major nay-sayers was also a major donor, or a major community figure...hmmmmm