The Infective Quality of Political Correctness, or How the Liberal Narrative Is Ruining Opera

 

Two years ago Nashville Opera staged Verdi’s Otello for the first time since 2001 (your’s truly was in that production). Mary Dunleavy sang like a goddess, as usual. As is so popular in opera nowadays, Otello was moved from 16th century Cyprus and instead set during the Desert Storm. I am normally not a fan of modernizing opera or changing the context of its setting, but it actually worked. Besides the obvious deviation in setting, the most striking thing about this production was the fact that Otello (or Othello, if you prefer) was not black, either as the result of casting or make up. Historically, white tenors have donned dark pan stick foundation in order to transform them into Shakespeare’s Moorish war hero. Not this time — Otello was instead just a white guy that was really tanned by desert sun. It was weird.

Then today, New York Public Radio featured a story announcing that the Metropolitan Opera will be presenting Otello this season, but will no longer be using skin darkening make up to make the white tenor look black in this production.

“Although the central character in Otello is a Moor from North Africa, the Met is committed to color-blind casting, which allows the best singers possible to perform any role, regardless of their racial background.”

The article does go on to say that the Latvian tenor cast in the lead role looked as though he had had a “bronzer malfunction” in promotional pictures, which led to abandoning the use of black face in this production. While the Met hasn’t made any restrictions just yet on the use of dark make up, a piece is slated to appear this month in the New York Times, exploring this “historic” event.

This makes me wonder: what next? If the fundamental aspects of Shakespeare’s story must be changed in order to please the PC narrative, where do we go from here? Will sopranos no longer be made to look like geisha when singing Madama Butterfly. Currently, black sopranos singing in Turandot often wear whitening make up and dramatic eyeliner to make them appear more Asian. Will similar outcries be heard regarding this? Where is the Japanese and Chinese outrage? What harm is there in color-blind casting, but allowing the characters to remain as close as possible to their original context?

Political correctness has already determined that white singers cannot be cast in operas that feature black main characters like Porgy and Bess and Treemonisha. A dear friend of mine even got a tongue lashing from a black faculty member for presenting “Summertime” at her full faculty juries — the faculty member said it was inappropriate for her to sing an aria that should “only be sung by black sopranos.” However, at this same institution, the role of Butterfly was sung by a rather rotund black soprano who certainly had the chops to do the role justice. Did she look the part of the 15-year-old geisha? Hell no! But she sang the role to perfection, and the fact that her phenotype wasn’t exactly fitting didn’t seem to matter in that instance. Did the use of make up help soften the disconnect? Absolutely.

Opera, theater, and ballet are all about the suspension of disbelief — for those few hours, it makes perfect sense that 250-pound woman is wasting away with consumption, a white man is Shakespeare’s tragic, Moorish hero, or a statuesque black lady is the Empress of China. What should matter in opera is the beauty of the singing, not the singer’s look. How else would we be left with the memory of Monserrat Caballe’s ethereal “Signore ascolta”? She certainly doesn’t look like a young, slight Chinese servant, but who would trade Caballe’s sublime singing for a soprano that screeches out the notes but looks the part?

What else will opera sacrifice at the alter of political correctness? What beauty are we losing by toeing the line of the liberal narrative?

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  1. Guruforhire Inactive
    Guruforhire
    @Guruforhire

    Freakin’ neo-jacobins.

    There is nothing they won’t ravage and not in the sexy-fun way.

    • #1
  2. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

     I saw a local staging of A Christmas Carol, and Mrs. Cratchit was black.  They can do US, but We are forbidden to do Them.  I want to see an all-white cast do Raisin in the Sun. (note that some grapes are green before becoming raisins)

    • #2
  3. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    I’ve always been able to suspend disbelief in the opera up to a point. I mean I’ve seen a production of Fidelio starring a very busty soprano, and when she was supposedly in disguise as a boy, I was able to refrain from shouting, “I can tell that’s a girl!” But when the decisions are made based on PC, my blood runs cold. I truly don’t know where this will lead, and sometimes I don’t even want to know. What I don’t understand it how they’re winning. Why are we letting them??

    • #3
  4. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    I demand a black actor!

    That will dumbfound liberals, so it must be the right answer.

    • #4
  5. CandE Inactive
    CandE
    @CandE

    My only encounter with mixed-race casting was our high school production of Romeo and Juliet.  Romeo was initially cast as an Asian, Juliet was black, Lady Capulet white, Lord Capulet mestizo, etc.  I was cast as Tybalt, then halfway through the production got promoted to Romeo after a scheduling conflict arose.

    While the color-blind approach was distracting at times (one couldn’t help but wonder how Juliet’s skin was darker than both her parents), most of the actors did well in their roles.  Except Juliet.  She was awful.  Like forgot-her-lines-during-the-balcony-scene-every-night awful.  And when she did get a line off you could barely understand it due to her poor diction.

    The worst part though… Juliet’s nurse was hot.  I mean smokin’.  I would have loved to mack on her in front of a crowd of people.  But, no.  I got affirmative action girl.  Sigh.

    -E

    • #5
  6. Herbert Woodbery Member
    Herbert Woodbery
    @Herbert

    (((This makes me wonder: what next? If the fundamental aspects of Shakespeare’s story must be changed in order to please the PC narrative, where do we go from here? Will sopranos no longer be made to look like geisha when singing Madama Butterfly. Currently, black sopranos singing in Turandot often wear whitening make up and dramatic eyeliner to make them appear more Asian. Will similar outcries be heard regarding this?)))

    i am not getting your point in regards to PCness.    You are saying color(gender/body type/etc) should be taken into account to avoid being PC?    Isn’t that backward?  A “blind” system would would seem to me to be avoiding PCness.  Talent only gets you the part….

    or are you saying that directors foregoing attempting to dress/makeup performers into historical phenotype is the PCness that should be avoided?

    or have I missed it altogether?

    • #6
  7. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    CandE:The worst part though… Juliet’s nurse was hot. I mean smokin’. I would have loved to mack on her in front of a crowd of people. But, no. I got affirmative action girl. Sigh.

    -E

    CandE, you’re my kind of conservative.

    • #7
  8. CandE Inactive
    CandE
    @CandE

    Gary McVey:

    CandE:The worst part though… Juliet’s nurse was hot. I mean smokin’. I would have loved to mack on her in front of a crowd of people. But, no. I got affirmative action girl. Sigh.

    -E

    CandE, you’re my kind of conservative.

    Aw shucks, I’m blushing.

    -E

    • #8
  9. JimGoneWild Coolidge
    JimGoneWild
    @JimGoneWild

    I hate PC crap. It destroys culture. Thanks.

    • #9
  10. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    Seriously, though talent does trump ethnicity, it’s great that modern Hollywood has such an abundance of actors that it’s not hard to match both qualifications.

    Opera is a smaller industry with less talent to choose from. It’s primarily about music, rather than visual storytelling. And half the audience probably can’t see the distant stage actors well enough to care much anyway.

    In many stories, the ethnicity of the characters is irrelevant. In those cases, sure, do whatever. Otherwise…

    And there’s plenty of room for smudging. In Hollywood films, it’s not uncommon for a South American to play an Arab or an Irishman to play an Italian. For that matter, it’s not uncommon for a New Yorker or Californian to butcher a Southern accent. Less than total accuracy is acceptable, but a little effort pays off.

    • #10
  11. David Sussman Member
    David Sussman
    @DaveSussman

    Aaron Miller:I demand a black actor!

    That will dumbfound liberals, so it must be the right answer.

    • #11
  12. Eric Hines Inactive
    Eric Hines
    @EricHines

    Vicryl Contessa: What beauty are we losing by toeing the line of the liberal narrative?

    The beauty of Truth.  Nothing more, nothing less.

    Eric Hines

    • #12
  13. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    Aaron, that’s very insightful; the world of opera being so much smaller, the issue has to come up more often. With, say, TV, it’s easier: “We need a hot Asian woman for ‘Hawaii Five-O’.”  “We need to find a black actor in his twenties for ‘Empire’.”

    You got me thinking about some of the ethnic re-castings I recall: Ali MacGraw (Scots-Irish) as (Jewish) Brenda Patamkin in “Goodbye Columbus”; John Turturro (Italian) as (Jewish) Herbert Stempel in “Quiz Show”.

    John Wayne was not a very credible Mongol in “The Conqueror”–“Ah takes you fer mah wife!”

    This is not even counting the times that Leonard Nimoy or Martin Landau played Chinese guys on “Mission: Impossible”…

    • #13
  14. Kate Braestrup Member
    Kate Braestrup
    @GrannyDude

    The music director at our high school told me once that when a high school puts on an old Broadway play—e.g. West Side Story—they can’t cast it in any way that might alter the gist of the thing. For instance, even if you have a very large number of talented and eager female actors, you can’t make all the Jets and Sharks girls.  Because high school music directors often have far more eager girls than eager boys, this is a chronic headache for them, but it isn’t a PC thing, it’s a copyright thing.

    • #14
  15. Herbert Woodbery Member
    Herbert Woodbery
    @Herbert

    (((You got me thinking about some of the ethnic re-castings I recall: Ali MacGraw (Scots-Irish) as (Jewish))))

    I believe Ali was ethnically Jewish,  now considers herself Buddhist.

    what did you think of The Winds of War?

    • #15
  16. Vicryl Contessa Thatcher
    Vicryl Contessa
    @VicrylContessa

    Herbert Woodbery:i am not getting your point in regards to PCness. You are saying color(gender/body type/etc) should be taken into account to avoid being PC? Isn’t that backward? A “blind” system would would seem to me to be avoiding PCness. Talent only gets you the part….

    or are you saying that directors foregoing attempting to dress/makeup performers into historical phenotype is the PCness that should be avoided?

    or have I missed it altogether?

    I can see where I wasn’t clear, Herbert. I actually don’t have a problem with singers playing characters of another race, but unlike the left, I don’t see a problem with making them up to seem more like the intended character. In the instance of Otello at the Met this season, Otello will just be a white guy, which makes zero sense in the context of the story. Asian sopranos don’t get in a tizzy over white or black singers singing Asian roles and being made up to look Asian. I also take issue with the double standard in opera that exists between black and white singers. There are lots of instances where it’s ok for a black singer to portray a white person but it’s not ok the other way around. The PC machine has changed opera to reflect its agenda.

    • #16
  17. Vicryl Contessa Thatcher
    Vicryl Contessa
    @VicrylContessa

    David Sussman:

    Aaron Miller:I demand a black actor!

    That will dumbfound liberals, so it must be the right answer.

    That was a great movie!

    • #17
  18. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    Gary McVey: John Wayne was not a very credible Mongol in “The Conqueror”–”Ah takes you fer mah wife!”

    This is not even counting the times that Leonard Nimoy or Martin Landau played Chinese guys on “Mission: Impossible”…

    My dad’s fond of the old Mr Wong detective stories acted by Boris Karloff. I haven’t seen those yet, but the setup was probably no more believable than Alec Guinness as a Japanese CEO or Rex Harrison as the king of Siam. The latter were good movies, but despite that unfortunate arrangement.

    Racial blunders work perfectly in comedy, though. Peter Sellers made a great Wang in Murder By Death.

    • #18
  19. Dorothea Inactive
    Dorothea
    @Dorothea

    VC,

    Thank you for that lovely post. I agree with you that it is a shame when the talent selected to portray a character may not actually be costumed to perform as the character due to political correctness.

    As a gift to me, my husband surprised me with Turandot tickets a few years back. He went along as a “good sport,” but Elizabeth Caballero’s performance of Signore Ascolta, made him sit up and take notice.  He surprised himself by becoming fan.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrCnREC5mI4

    • #19
  20. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    In the land of the color-blind, the mulatto is king.

    The game industry will soon put forth an entry into the racial debates. Mafia 3, due sometime in the next year or two, will feature a mixed-race protagonist during the Vietnam era who is adopted by a black mob and goes to war with an italian mob in New Orleans. (I removed the link to the trailer after realizing it violates the CoC. Look it up.)

    Incidentally, I saw some pretty black girls with fros while delivering meals this morning. The hairdo looked good on them. It would look stupid on a white woman.

    There was a time when people understood that the key to amiable race relations was respecting differences, not trying to ignore or obliterate them. As Clint Eastwood said, there were a lot of laughs and grins back when micks, wops, and pollacks swapped jokes at each other’s expense.

    • #20
  21. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    V,

    Not since Chairman Mao’s Red Guard has there been this level of idiocy screaming its intolerance in the name of progress. If this is taken to its ultimate conclusion there will be no art left.

    Better that the politically correct are led to their ultimate conclusion and we hear from them no more.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #21
  22. Michael Collins Member
    Michael Collins
    @MichaelCollins

    Vicryl Contessa:What beauty are we losing by toeing the line of the liberal narrative?

    Vicryl, thank you for knowing the difference between “toeing the line” and “towing the line”.   This is not one of my biggest peeves, but “towing” the line is still slightly annoying.

    • #22
  23. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    Michael Collins:

    Vicryl Contessa:What beauty are we losing by toeing the line of the liberal narrative?

    Vicryl, thank you for knowing the difference between “toeing the line” and “towing the line”. This is not one of my biggest peeves, but “towing” the line is still slightly annoying.

    Where’s EJ when we need Contessa in full operatic regalia on a trawler?

    • #23
  24. Pencilvania Inactive
    Pencilvania
    @Pencilvania

    Just for consistency’s sake, let’s point out that they have in this case cast a white singer to sing a traditionally black role – I think that’s what some comments above assume ‘never happens.’  It’s happening here. I have not seen a white Porgy but if this is a signal, maybe that’ll happen in the future too.

    I’ve read Shakespeare’s Othello, not sure if the opera follows it exactly, but my memory tells me Othello is disliked as an outsider, partly for his skin color, more primarily because he’s kind of gruff & people around him are jealous of his success. I think that can come through a performance without extra pigment.

    I’ve seen classic shows reset in different times, and they rarely work as beautifully as the author’s original intent, but some can be a neat twist, and show how literary themes can be literally timeless. Probably the makeup crew are the most disappointed of all involved in this case.

    Also, I’m not beyond trusting that the Powers That Be in the opera world hope fervently that this trend catches on all over, so that in 10 years they can be hailed and lauded for giving opera lovers the singular treat of performing Otello with its original production values, right down to the lead wearing Moorface.

    • #24
  25. Probable Cause Inactive
    Probable Cause
    @ProbableCause

    I recently took my wife to see a non-musical production of Othello.  I thought it was a tale that exposed the darker impulses of human nature, such as jealousy and revenge.  Afterward, I read the program liner notes — the director was endeavoring to look at the play through the lens of “race, class, and gender.”

    Whatever.  Fortunately, despite the director’s best efforts, I was too dense to see that stuff, and just saw the jealousy, revenge, etc.

    • #25
  26. Vicryl Contessa Thatcher
    Vicryl Contessa
    @VicrylContessa

    I am all for using singers of the character’s ethnicity- assuming they’re good singers with voices appropriate to the role. Unfortunately, Otello is a role for a heavier voice, so that limits the options. In cases like this, where the character’s race plays a big part of the plot, I think it’s more important to try to make the character as close to the story’s original intent.

    • #26
  27. Kate Braestrup Member
    Kate Braestrup
    @GrannyDude

    Vicryl Contessa: In the instance of Otello at the Met this season, Otello will just be a white guy, which makes zero sense in the context of the story.

    Vicryl—

    it seems to me that, in opera at least (and musicals too) the characters are made up to look like a sort of opera understanding of “Japanese” or “North African” or whatever. In other words, they aren’t trying to make the plump Af-Am look like an actual geisha, they’re just gesturing toward a kind of theatrical convention of an Asian person—exotic, slanting eye-makeup, and chopsticks in the topknot. I should think Otello has generally been played the same way: the expectation wasn’t that he would fool people into thinking  he was Morgan Freeman.

    • #27
  28. Vicryl Contessa Thatcher
    Vicryl Contessa
    @VicrylContessa

    Kate- yes, you’re right. The point isn’t to fool the audience. No one expects people to come away thinking “Wow! I didn’t realize he was actually white in real life.” The make up softens the edges of the disconnect; it helps create the illusion.

    • #28
  29. NancyB Member
    NancyB
    @NancyB

    Sammy Davis Jr. once said he wanted to do some Shakespeare, and play Iago in The Moor of Venice.  That would be a casting problem, no?

    • #29
  30. Arizona Patriot Member
    Arizona Patriot
    @ArizonaPatriot

    Michael Collins:

    Vicryl Contessa:What beauty are we losing by toeing the line of the liberal narrative?

    Vicryl, thank you for knowing the difference between “toeing the line” and “towing the line”. This is not one of my biggest peeves, but “towing” the line is still slightly annoying.

    This was a pet peeve of one of my undergrad English professors.  His other example was saying “take it for granite” rather than “take it for granted,” though for this one, he pointed out that the saying still worked, albeit with a changed meaning.

    I do remember, as a youngster, not understanding the saying that “a stitch in time saves nine.”  Nine what, I wondered.

    • #30
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