Opera- now also being infested with ‘woke’

 

Would you believe it – they’re still at it! Yes, the manifold outlets of the Ministry of Propaganda and Nudge still clobber their readers with yon former footballer turned crisps salesman. ‘Staff’ has even propelled the good old Star to the top of their print front pages collection this morning, under the headline “Newspaper headlines: ‘Pressure on BBC bosses’ and ‘SVB tremors spread” (link).

Interestingly, with one exception the Westminster press now screams for the head of the BBC, Tim Davie. Well, he was appointed by a certain B.Johnson, so clearly he has to go. The exception in this chorus is The Express, asking if this Lineker tale ‘has put a nail into the BBC Licence Fee’. Heh – that’ll be the day!

 We’re also provided with a little titbit of gossip regarding tomorrow’s budget: a nice little nudge to whet our appetites since it’s about pensions. As for the banking crisis; are the BBC staffers so concerned because they’ve parked their obscenely high salaries in yon crashed bank? People who buy Lineker crisps probably haven’t even enough dosh to save, never mind worry about their ‘venture capital’.

There was one news item which caught my eye. It shows how utterly woke our ‘culture’ has become,  how the ‘culture’ sections of our MSM are giving extra platforms to the woke, and how readers and ‘culture consumers’ have uncomplainingly swallowed this. Moreover, some of those readers seem to be too stupid in their attempt to push wokeism to even distinguish between two things.

Enough with this talking in riddles – let me explain. It’s about an opera. Yesterday afternoon the DM reported:

“Royal Opera House is accused of ‘whitewashing’ over new production of Puccini’s Turandot which is set in China – but only features two Asian actors and an Italian singer as the Chinese Princess” (link)

Omigawd – the racism! Btw, ‘Turandot” is famous for the aria ‘Nessun dorma’.Two hours later, The Times produced a report as well. Why was this even of interest? After all, the ‘revival premiere’ took place on the 10th of this month, so it’s not precisely ‘news’, is it! I’m quoting from The Times because they’ve also published the review of yon premiere. We’re told:

“In a statement on Twitter, a spokesman for BEATS [British East and Southeast Asians in Theatre and On Screen] said: “BEATS, the advocacy group, is very concerned about the upcoming Royal OperaHouse production of Puccini’s Turandot, which has highly limited representation of BESEAs on stage. Across the casts, only two of the nine lead roles are performed by BESEA (British east and southeast Asian) singers. Casting a white actor in a specifically non-white role, known as ‘whitewashing’, is regressive, as it perpetuates the historical and present exclusion of Artists of Colour from the stage.” (link, paywalled)

Yes, it’s come to this: woke groups demand ‘representation’ based on skin colour and ethnicity, disregarding actual talent. Did nobody tell them that opera singing, unlike speaking, demands mastering a huge technique which is different from stage speaking? Never mind that the – obviously uber-posh – audience paying lots of money to hear the best singers must be taught not to listen but just to look.

The Royal Opera House did reject the Woke Wail, but forgive me if I find their statement rather reminiscent of a kow-tow to woke:

“A spokeswoman for the Royal Opera House said […]: “We are opposed to pigeonholing singers into certain roles based on ethnicity, recognising that to do so would be limiting and reductive, […] At the same time, we do not ignore ethnicity entirely. Instead, we are committed to colour-conscious casting, an approach which considers the nuance required to authentically and respectfully portray each and every story.” (link, paywalled)

But they did cast a South Korean in the leading male role, didn’t they! Being a nosey old cow, I checked out yon male lead singer (Yonghoon Lee, here in 2017) of whom I’d never heard: thank you, youtube. Well, let me be generous and say that a new Pavarotti (here in 1994) he ain’t, nor does Jonas Kaufmann (here in 2017)  need to be concerned. Here’s the key paragraph from The Times’ review (my emphasis):

“Revival director Jack Furness can do little with the key protagonists: part of the reason this staging survives (and has so far avoided a cultural appropriation row) is that it doesn’t seem to depict real people. He is also stuck with stiff tenor and soprano leads. Yonghoon Lee’s Calaf expels a Nessun dorma loud enough to wake up half the Forbidden City, but the voice is hard and uningratiating, and his hammy gestures would have looked daft when this show was new. By total contrast, Anna Pirozzi supplies a softer voiced Princess Turandot than usual. She has good, pinging high notes, but there’s an overall lack of definition, a frustrating passivity to her portrayal.” (link)

But, cry comment posters, didn’t the grauniad give a rave review this Turandot, conducted by Mr Pappano? How dare they criticise yon East Asian singer! Racism must be rife! Sadly, as the author of  The Times’ review keeps pointing out in the comment posts, the grauniad review was for a new album of that opera which had just come out. The conductor is Pappano who hasn’t conducted this opera on stage as of yet. Here’s the grauniad’s review of the two lead roles in that album:

“[…] the two leads have yet to play their roles on stage. Sondra Radvanovsky has steel in her soprano for the titular princess, eager to chop off her suitors’ heads if they can’t answer her riddles. But there’s a hint of something else from her first appearance, when her imperious hauteur admits softness at the recollection of her wronged ancestor. Jonas Kaufmann is on heroic form. He has a darker voice with a lower centre of gravity than past Calafs such as Pavarotti and Björling, but it glows where it needs to, notably in a long-breathed Nessun Dorma.” (link)

Yes, that’s pretty ‘rave’ in my books, but what does it tell us about the mindset of wokeists who cannot even distinguish between a review of a live performance and an album? What does it tell us about a woke group like the one bemoaning that no East Asians got the top roles?

Above all – what does it tell us about an institution such as the Royal Opera House who tries to have its cake and eat it? Do we really believe they didn’t ‘pigeon-hole’ the character when they gave this famous role to a singer who has been around for some while now and is certainly not a ‘new talent’ just discovered, who needed to be given ‘a chance’?

And finally: what to think of the education of yon ‘BEATS’ group who seems to be ignorant of the fact that Puccini was an Italian and that ‘Turandot’ takes place in a fantasy land reminiscent of China but not the actual country? When will we hear the first cries that this opera is ‘cultural appropriation’ and should be scrapped? As for educating those people commenting in the Times who can’t even notice the difference between a review of a live performance and an album … it’s a lost cause, I’m afraid.

We’ve already been deprived of top Russian opera singers because of you-know-what. Perhaps we must also scrap all those fabulous black opera singers because the roles they sing were written for whitey Italians or Germans? Does ‘cultural appropriation’ not apply? 

That’s all I have for today. At least, while writing, I was able to listen to two exceptional tenors, the second of whom puts paid to the assumption that only Italians can sing Italian opera. Have a good day.  



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