Edinburgh opera draws Holocaust abuse

Edinburgh opera draws Holocaust abuse

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norman lebrecht

August 08, 2016

About Turn Theatre’s production this week of Grigory Frid’s opera on the diary of Anne frank has drawn such a volume of holocaust denial posts that the company’s artistic director, Dan Hyde, has issued the following statement:

About Turn Theatre’s staging of Russian Composer Grigori Frid’s opera ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ has been met with a barrage of online abuse. The company’s Facebook page has been subjected to messages denying the
holocaust and suggesting that Anne Frank’s diary is a fake.

The company has attempted to refute the claims, writing: “We have to state that any suggestion that the diary is inauthentic has been thoroughly debunked. The diary is real. The holocaust was real. People’s suffering was, and is real. This is the company’s final word on this matter.

Frid’s opera, premiered in 1968, has been staged in many countries. It is a wretched, dehumanising sign of our times that an opera about a child in hiding should become a magnet for anti-semites and Holocaust deniers.

anne frank

photo: Anne Frank House

Comments

  • John Borstlap says:

    Amazing story…. and shocking. One wonders why populism and ignorism seems to be spreading so widely, maybe because of the variety of media? In pre-internet times, underlings had no channel of expression and muttered in their corner. With the current easy availability of information, they ignore it, and ventilate. Like globalization, increasing communication possibilities in the world have quite unexpected downsides.

    • a domani says:

      The messages on slipped disc of the writer of this message are perfect examples of his own message

    • John says:

      I agree with you, John. The Internet, and anonymity, has provided a channel for those people who live under rocks and in dark corners to vent and spew opinions that previously lived (mostly) only in their minds. I just had a conversation last night with a journalist about this very subject.

      For such people, I’d offer up this bit of wisdom from the late lamented Frank Zappa. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lydGG1RnooI

  • Mick says:

    There is much talk at the moment about rising antisemitism in Europe, however for a variety of reasons it is not always made clear, just who is behind the bulk of those incidents. It is among the muslim segment of the population that hatred of Jews and Israel is widespread and becoming ever more stubborn, as those people are forever on the lookout for “enemies” to blame for the mess they make out of their own lives.

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