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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?
Published in General
Dude, she’s not a hot Asian woman. She’s a Cylon. :)
OK, a Cylon who looks like a hot Asian woman.
I agree that opera—like ballet a very, very stylized art—relies on the suspension of disbelief moreso than movies and TV shows, but I’m glad that they try to convey the general sense of a character through the makeup and costuming, which is why it will be more confusing when they cast actors of the wrong race without making them up somehow.
An extreme case on the other side was the Disney Channel’s 1997 production of Cinderella: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0128996/
In this case, they not only didn’t make any attempt either to have a racial consistency in the actors or to make them up in a way to give that impression, but they went out of their way to be as inconsistent as possible. It went to the point of distraction, for something that wasn’t a high school production: The king is white, the queen is black, and their son is Korean!
In this case, it made the whole thing simply confusing.
well. Lennie’s estate needs to get with the times. ;)
except for that Rachel girl…her ‘fro was dope.
but if anywhere in the story or the dialogue, the color of Othello’s skin is mentioned, or linked to the flowing action and narrative, it seems to mar the story if that quality is gone.
Shall the producer’s change the story or dialogue?
Othello is probably public domain by now, but at what point are things changed that they aren’t what their creator created, but someone else’s creation?
Many years ago my wife and I went to the Folger theater in DC to see Richard III. The lead was supposed to be (I believe) Brian Keith, but he was ill and his understudy was a young black guy who nailed the performance. You’re right: “the play’s the thing” (Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2)
You obviously didn’t bother to Check Your Privilege™ before you posted this bit of offence.
I hope the Met doesn’t receive any public funding, as this obliviousness to the evils of structural racism is a great impediment to a just and diverse society. Just as gender norming has so improved the sense of social justice for women in this nation, a realization of the disparate impact on the minority opera community due to decisions made in the larger opera world is sorely needed.
Sacrifice? To further appropriately contextualize the argument here – opera, at least in this country, is primarily patronized by the affluent, white community. Thus the loss of opera in general might even serve a greater social justice good, given its patron base.
If opera is to continue, outreach to organizations such as Color of Change and the National Action Network to receive mentoring as to appropriate steps which can be taken to make opera more inclusive and less overtly racist would be quite useful.
I’m no expert here, but… doesn’t the fact that male actors played female parts back in Shakespeare’s day thoroughly invalidate any racial arguments?
I just like the phrase “bronzer malfunction”.
& more importantly, Mr. Connery played a Berber in The wind & the lion!
Titus, Connery’s accent was a comic joy. Some Arab: “Hoot mon, och, aye, we’ll make a jihad. Now bring me my haggis and a wee dram.”
& he says, They have rifles that fires many times promiscuously!
No one has a problem with the pretty coloraturas pretending to be Indian when they sing Lakme.
Just for you Gary.
Thank you, Vicryl. Truly you are an angel without wings.
Or maybe you do have wings; I haven’t been to any of the meetups.
Anyway, it’s clear from your writing that you can take flight with or without wings.
You’re making me blush, Gary! Maybe I’ll go brush my wings to calm me down.
Wow! A young Henry Fonda (#42). Another great post, thank you.
Last year, I went to a production of Otello at the Bucharest Opera. The singing seemed fine to my untrained ear, but the production seemed to be taken from the Serbian civil war of the early ’90s. It was terribly militaristic.
Somehow, nobody seems to have given one thought to the fact that the story of Othello includes only speeches about extraordinary feats of war: His speeches at that. He is never shown doing anything remotely military…
I think I’ve learned about plays this way: When people get something wrong, if I can figure out what’s so wrong about it, I can figure out something important about the play.
There is something else, too, that just does not seem to come out in the Opera. They love each other for all the wrong reasons. She rejected all the soft Venetians because she wants to escape that peace–or she thinks she does–& wants a tough guy. He is tired of war–& thinks he might want to be soothed–& she is the first creature in God’s green world who showed him mercy. They cannot both get what they want even if either of them really knows what’s good for him.
I’ve heard it said that “Nobody goes to the opera to enjoy the plots”, and that’s certainly a good thing, as few of them make all that much sense, and some are, by modern standards, utterly ridiculous. But when you start spinning that 1966 recording of Beverly Sills, and you anticipate the run to the high note, you still feel like joyously shouting, “Hit it, Bubbles!”
I have a love/hate relationship with Bev Sills. She certainly had a depth to her that allowed her to sing the really difficult bel canto rep and Violetta, but there was an edge to her voice that always kind of grates on me. Still, she’s the consummate Baby Doe in my book.
#46 – Thanks, GV. Another one for the Netflix queue.
One endearing thing about Beverly Sills was the utterly unpretentious, lower-to-middle class Brooklyn accent she had offstage, when she was just being Belle Silverman.
You sound like quite the Sills fan there, Gary.
And I’m a remaining holdover from the Fischer-Dieskau era, too.
I heard a rumor that Boehner has been rehearsing I Pagliacci and that he’ll do it in orangeface.
Gary- I love Fisher-Diskau too.
Brian- that’s hilarious!
I dunno if it’s all bad Vicryl. I’ve been to a handful of Operas. My fondest memories are the the ones that really butchered the originals.
My Dad and I went to see Eugene Onegin at the Vienna Opera House. It’s the only time I’ve ever been to any of the legendary European venues. The original costumes and set were junked in favour of something I’ll describe as minimalist euro nightclub. This was meant to encourage the younger generation to get into opera. Needless to say it got tedious. But we gritted our teeth through Act 1. Act 2 is supposed to feature a legendary Polka, which was the primary reason my dad took me.
As it’s about to begin, he goes “ok this is it! This is the famous part of the opera!”
The polka was substituted for a potpourri of 60s dances like the monkey, the swim, the hot-potato and so on. I’ll never forget the rising groan from the audience as it dawned on them what was happening. Good times.