An Instagram microsite that collects incidents of racial prejudice in the opera world had 9,258 followers as of today.
@orchestra is racist had 3,035 followers and some graphic accounts of alleged misconduct in Cleveland.
@composingis racist has 1,458 followers.
The US violinist has announced she is still…
We gather that Juilliard has summarily fired a…
The Atlanta gadfly music critic Mark Gresham reviewed…
The Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires has appointed…
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I always thought composing is racist. Music paper is privileged white, the lines of the staves are in disproportional black, most notes are little black balls with humiliating little flags attached. And still, they are a minority in relation to the whiteness of the page. But there is hope: British composer Brian Ferneyhough writes such dense music that every page contains much more black than white (story goes that he composes with type-ex, creating little white spaces on black pages).
So, it is to be expected that soon all composers will be obliged to write in Ferneyhough’s style, to prevent conscious or unconscious racism. It will all sound awful, but at least musical morality will be saved.
Very funny, Mr B 😉
I agree with that John!
Not funny. I do not agree with the view of the site, but this kind of post is disgusting.
Cheer up, Phillipe. JB is WONDERFUL!
Black people remain rudderless followers.
They only see themselves through institutions that white people have created with envy.
They are now using the old KKK tactics the Democrat founders enacted to make themselves feel superior to everybody else.
Destruction is more important to Blacks today than creation.
In doing this, they are destroying themselves and subsequently holding themselves back…as usual.
What an entirely nonsensical comment. The problem is education and accessibility, and there, ‘invisible’ obstacles, of which poverty is one of the greatest, creates the impression that ethnically-defined minority groups are discriminated against in the performing arts. But this is what becomes visible at the end of a long trajectory that begins elsewhere. The fact that minority groups are so underrepresented in the cultural institutions demands explanation, it is ‘not normal’ indeed, and such demands are entirely justified. But the lack of sufficient minority presence in the performing arts makes visible what happens much earlier in the trajectory and it is there – at the beginning – where action should take place: battling poverty, better education, better information.
Culture is a mental and emotional field entirely independent from any ethnicity or gender or shoe size or any physical trait. Anybody with sufficient talent can absorb a culture according to his or her inclination and character. If cultural institutions appear to be almost entirely ‘white’, this is an important signal of something. But to label all cultural activities and artefacts in terms of ethniticy, is wrong and missing the point. “Don’t shoot the messenger.”
The US elected it’s first ‘Black’ (father black, mother white) President in 2004 and re-elected him in 2008.
If so called ‘white-privilege’ existed, this would NOT have occurred.
Further, both the defacing and tearing down of ONLY white statues was not necessary at that time nor is it necessary now.
Obama would have ‘courageously’ signed an executive order or ran it through the house and senate. He failed to ever do either. His administration didn’t deem it critical enough to even try.
The actions of the TRUE “basket of deplorables” a la Hillary Clinton are the DEMOCRAT PARTY insighting VIOLENCE in their pure jealousy of President Trump!
There are too many black people who are both offended and embarrassed by these criminals.
Perhaps Norman will have the stones to interview some and present a healthier, more diverse pool of strong, black, proud American citizens.
At least get your facts straight… Obama was elected for the first time in 2008 and re-elected in 2012 ♀️
You mean labeling “all white people” as racists Johnny?
If you’re going to be this verbose on most of the topics, you need to formulate a cogent argument backed up by specific instances of your viewpoint.
You have no proof of this so it’s best if you go have a wank and enjoy the life you crafted for yourself.
‘Johnny’ need not do anything; certainly not at your bidding. His verbosity is the expression of a lively, amusingly astute uncowed mind. You lost all credibility when you replaced wit with vulgarity. I wonder what the reaction would be, if that which you wrote, was directed at a female. Another example of misandry, perhaps? In such times, WE cannot be pleasant to each other?
Your concept of ‘we’ is demented.
Democrats ‘lost all credibility’ when they began beating anyone donning a MAGA hat, rioting, looting, etc. when President Trump was elected. That’s why nobody pays attention to the Left and can’t stand mainstream news. You represent a hate group.
“….battling poverty, better education, better information…” JB.
Very well, so is there anyone preventing these people from learning, getting information and later getting a job? Yes, sure. And this would be the Welfare State which teaches them not to study and not to learn and not to work!! They know from the beginning of the “trajectory” that they will get everything they need FREE from Welfare Program and the rest they will get with some other means and we all know how.
Those few who are born to achieve something in life, they achieve indeed!! But there are not many!
You mention ‘talent’ which is a form of intelligence. The trouble is not only a matter of culture. A minimu degree of intelligence is also a requirement.
It becomes quite interesting when someone talks about education, all in the guise of how you fix a problem, when I don’t exactly see that education is what’s been going on to begin with. That’s regarding ALL culture’s that aren’t “white” just about. What I’ve found is that Jazz theory is more scientific regarding the overtone series, and that’s NOT something that was “taught” to the boys who somehow got a hold of an instrument they weren’t supposed to have, and had to go by the fence post where no “white educator” could see them, and thus the boys (or maybe even girls) could play with them (the instruments they weren’t supposed to have, and if they were allowed would have been taught in such a way to prevent the whole science that’s more true to the overtone series from emerging) to find how they truly resonated, and what those notes did.
I highly recommend you look at these specific incidents, as many of them have nothing to do with economic disadvantage or accessibility, but rather racial bias/discrimination.
Wow. That’s… impressive.
You are absolutely right, if you talk of overwhelming majority of Blacks today in the USA.
There are, however, extremely bright and eloquent, highly educated and brilliant people among Blacks today too. Listen to Candace Owens or Thomas Sowell and you see for yourself.
It will all sound awful, but at least musical morality will be saved.
Brilliant. Just brilliant.
Is this tongue in cheek?
Great comment! Bravo JB!!
Many of these stories are disgusting. Some of them are, in my mind, not much more than insensitivity, but many require real consequences and action.
If the leftist garbage pulling down statues could pull down opera…of course they would. Luckily, they are mostly too ignorant to even know it exists. In the future, historians will label this the era of “WAHHHHHHH”
E Rand: I’m totally with you there. Modern day Talibans have apparently just discovered history, and history has seldom been beautiful, with the exception of La Belle Epoque. The Renaissance was sponsored by monsters and murderers, and the sign of a great nation has always been warfare and slavery trading, almost in any big nation. And that’s precisely why we are supposed to learn from history; it doesn’t make it better just to rewrite it or sweep it under the carpet. Monuments are there to remind us of the old world.
But luckily, today’s statue-bashers have still not discovered La Divina Commedia, or Tom Sawyer and Hucklebbery Finn, or The Cabin of Uncle Tom, or the Merchant of Venice or the opera world as you point out. And just wait till they discover the archetypal and misogynistic world of Ancient Greek Drama. The “good humanitarian leftians” in Sweden have so far discovered that Pippi Longstocking is disgustinly racist, as well as Tintin.
I have always been profoundly shocked by Miss Pippi, also by her hairdo.
@Novagerio — Don’t overlook the Taliban of decades gone by. Huckleberry Finn has long be banned from schools and libraries all over the USA and all of Shakespeare was forbidden from the California school system starting in 1947 I think it was.
The unintended consequence of this last miscarriage is that generations of Californians grew up to discover and love Shakespeare unimpeded by bad memories so that today its summer Shakespeare festival circuit is the most varied and popular in the world, or was the last I knew.
They don’t care about Jews.
“If the leftist garbage”
We chose nazis over “leftist garbage” once. Made you guys unhappy for some reason! Maybe we were just ahead of our times. But I see you’re catching up.
Greetingz from Germany!
While I don’t think “leftist garbage” is a helpful phrase (actually these people are worse than that), it is astonishing that you fail to see who the equivalent to the Nazis are today.
Who are the people who are ideologically obsessed, who follow a cult and treat dissenters like blashphemers who need to be destroyed? Who takes about collective and historical guilt? Who judges people by their skin colour and accuses people based on their ethnicity of being “privileged oppressors” who are responsible for the evil in this world?
A hint: it is not “the right”.
“who are responsible for the evil in this world?”
Well, if you put it that way:
Guys like you!
They started out as socialists, don’t forget.
Hey, Brettermeier, you know the Nazis were socialists, right ? Remember what NSADP stood for ? Also, how is the ideology of the new American left (like the idiotic congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez) different from the Nazis or the Commies ?
“Hey, Brettermeier, you know the Nazis were socialists, right ?”
Est-ce que to écris en français? Non? Then stop putting a space before the question mark.
“you know the Nazis were socialists, right ? ”
Of course not, because that’s stupid. But I do believe you think that.
“Also, how is the ideology of the new American left (like the idiotic congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez) different from the Nazis or the Commies ?”
I’m sorry, this is too gormless to actually warrant an answer.
A free history lesson for you, kid. I know facts are inconvenient for you, but they are much more important than your emotions.
In a letter to his fellow Nazi Otto Wagener, Hitler wrote that the his goal was “convert the German volk to socialism without simply killing off the old individualists”.
He added “ What Marxism, Leninism and Stalinism failed to accomplish, we shall be in a position to achieve.”
Here are some excerpts from the NSDAP platform:
“…We demand that the state be charged first with providing the opportunity for a livelihood and way of life for the citizens…”
“…The first obligation of every citizen must be to productively work, mentally or physically…”
“…The activity of individuals is not to counteract the interests of the universality”
“…We demand the breaking of debt (interest)-slavery…”
“…we demand the total confiscation of all war profits…”
“…We demand a division of profits of all heavy industries…”
“…We demand an expansion on a large scale of old age welfare…”
“…We demand the immediate communalization of the great warehouses”
Of course, al this is very different from the platform of the “Democratic” socialists (eye roll)
“A free history lesson for you, kid. ”
Yeah, I guess a free history lesson is where you got “knowledge”, gramps.
Make a PhD in history and an appointment, then we’ll talk again.
“We chose nazis over “leftist garbage” once”.
Brettermeier! Let me educate you a little. Both, NSDAP and RSDRP (resepctfully parties of Hitler and Lenin) are ideologically the same: DICTATORSHIP of the Elite from masses/proletariat. Fascism, in any form always comes from the Leftist Ideology. The slight difference is in the means of production. Both parties were “socialist” and “workers” parties. So, here we go. Bolsheviks aka “socialists” also demolished art and culture to build their own in 1905. And then they exterminated more than 27 million people. “Socialists” in Germany started same things just a bit later, in 1930-s. Maoists did the same in China’s so called “Cultural Revolution”.
Many others followed around the world. And now the fascist plague has returned! The names might have changed, the ideology remained: 1930-s NAZIS became today’s ANTIFA and BLM. These are the key words:
“Du passé faisons table rase
Foule esclave, debout, debout
Le monde va changer de base
Nous ne sommes rien, soyons tout”
Destroy, divide, conquer and control!
“Brettermeier! Let me educate you a little.”
Yes, “little” indeed. *rolleyes*
@NL: I would be really interested to know how many of the comments and likes here originated from Russia.
What a confusion of notions. It seems that educational curriculae are not always very effective, not even on the most basic level.
Socialism was born from the humanist ideas of the Enlightenment, in order to liberate the masses which were ruthlessly exploited, and to give them access to education and a more worthy life. Also the idea that there are some things like human rights stem from that time. To create a society where some obstacles protect people from dehumanization, the development of bourgeois democracy tried to fight injustice, as seen from this Enlightenment position. And that development is still under way and far from finished. The perverse experiments of fascism and communism have nothing to do with human rights or the Enlightenment, or with civilization as such.
Even the best ideals can be misused by people who don’t understand them, as the history of the Christian church clearly shows.Throwing-out the child with the bath water has never helped with the procreation process.
I am certainly surprised at the extent to which opera has so far avoided the ‘authentic casting’ steamroller. There have been some incidents here and there but nothing compared to the waves this issue has made in the worlds of theatre, film and TV. By and large opera companies are still getting away with casting white singers as Cio-Cio San, Aida and Otello (and of course black and Asian singers as ‘white’ characters, but that seems to be anyway encouraged in other art forms rather than frowned upon).
Those of us who love and understand opera know that if this ever blew up, it would be the end of the art form since it’s nigh-on impossible to consistently find a perfect vocal and ethnic match for certain roles. Plus, once you take into account the absurdity of having it all sung in Italian, the whole ‘authenticity’ debate becomes a total farce.
But I can’t help thinking that the knives are already being sharpened.
You make an interesting argument, it really seems to be about what we are able to see or overlook.
Opera is so fake, we suspend disbelief by imagining the actions on stage, do we really think that what we are seeing is the bottom of the Rhine River, or a temple in Egypt? No we understand that it takes imagination.
We also suspend disbelief regarding the singers, would Siegfried really be a middle aged man with a paunch? No but that guy can sing and we overlook the visuals.
I am happy to overlook the middle-aged hero, to imagine the rainbow bridge, to have Wotan be played by a person of any color, creed, race or religion.
Opera tells stories, I want to hear a great one. I will set with an audience of any race, creed, or religion. As long as you are not distracting me you are my opera friend. Let’s go to the theater, hear something great and then try to make the world equally wonderful.
If opera turns to “authentic casting”, thousands of singers will end up out of work.
Yes, and much of the popular repertoire can no longer be performed.
To go back to the obvious example, at any given time there is only a small handful of tenors anywhere in the world who can sing a really good Otello, given the extraordinary vocal demands of the role. Usually if someone has the right voice for it he will be welcomed by the audience regardless of what he looks like.
If it becomes compulsory in future to cast a genuine Moor (Arab-Berber) performer, then unless such a tenor magically emerges we will no longer be able to see the piece.
The most dramatic consequence of ‘authentic casting’ happened in 2015 in a pruduction of Poulenc’s “Les Dialogues des Carmelites” in the German town of [redacted], where the authentic guillotine at the end made a new ensemble of singing nuns necessary for every night. Never was the courage with which the small female chorus faced their end expressed with such gripping reality.
Getting away with? What of the great black singers who played white-face roles?
It’s about time that such scandalous racist practices are prohibited.
Opera is about testosterone rather than Monostatos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIj1vIxfPRs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO1vIedMOmc
Lasst die Glöckchen klingen !
Olympic track events are racist.
The Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes are racist.
The Indy 500 is racist.
Political campaigns are racist.
“Woke Taliban” is more than a catchy phrase. There is no difference between these entitled, narcissistic totalitarians and the followers of other primitive, destructive anti-enlightenment, anti-humanistic cults.
This has nothing to do with race and everything with ideological possession.
It’s more like neo-Marxism. We are likely to see a re-birth of the Communist Party soon, as it is all their tactics come back to haunt us.
The good thing about all this hysteria is that they will end up devouring themselves as usual.
Perhaps, but the rest of us have to put up with them in the process.
In the bowl that is political ideology, the extreme left and right come together at the bottom. It’s where the “woke” statue-topplers meet Nazi book-burners.
Yes, but it is the damage they will do in the process that could be irreversible.
I seriously doubt an instagram posting saying opera is wonderful could attract a fraction of that following. Today’s buzzword is “racist,” and everyone seems to be signing on willy-nilly to anything tagging that. The fallout of that may be that people like me, who are passionately opposed to sexism, racism, other -isms, in opera (or anywhere) are less likely to “follow” complaints that turn out to be legitimate. (I do NOT use “follow” in te instagram sense, as I have never joined that social medium).
There is no reason not to cast according to colour in theatre, film and TV, given the massive talent pools available from all races. (I am less attracted to “colourblind” or “sexblind” casting — I have no interest in seeing a female Lear, even if it is Glenda Jackson, though thanks in part to the necessary — and it must be continued — colourblind casting in opera and ballet I have less resistance to a BAME Lear or Hamlet. But that is a personal choice: I do understand that women actors may want to take on the challenges of the great roles written, as so many were back in the day, for men. And in Shakespeare in particular from what is usually played on a modern stage, sex-oblivious casting has a great provenance. Daunting to try to picture the Duchess of Malfi played by a male…).
But it is not good enough to merely disparage the racist-this, racist that crowd for shooting themselves in the foot. They need to be fought. Any ill-treatment of minority, or any other, opera members must be fought, and on its own grounds. But let’s not let that drip over to the stage. Turandot is too good to be lost because it cannot be presented, at least in the west, with an all-Chinese cast. And much as I am proud of my homeland, including its musical talent, I would never insist that every member of the cast of Lucia di Lammermoor be Scottish!
Given the naturalistic approach to acting and staging that is so prevalent, color-blind casting is all the more jarring.
Interesting that all those thousands join those Twitter groups addressing issues with racism and sexism in opera, issues like yellow-face, black-face, and anti-Semitism, but that almost all the comments on this site are opposed to those Twitter groups. Why is that?
Because they promote a crass, divisive and reductive view of the world.
Let’s hear your explanation, William. I’m sure you have your finger on the pulse of this issue.
The rest of us seem to believe the woke movement has more than run its course and only young people with nothing to do or old anarchists who just want to watch the world burn are involved in these postings.
Get the backbone to use your real name and maybe we’ll talk.
All of these sites are fascist. The irony is that no one has been performing for months and in the interim the entire world has become racist. These people need to get a life and actually get a real job. If the industry is so racist then go do something else for a change.
We should not apologize that the great composers who have given millions of people jobs over the centuries were white. It’s like black people apologizing for basketball players being mainly black.
Basketball is racist.
Pathetic world.
A few years ago there was an American movie made called White Men Can’t Jump. Never saw it, but I think it was a comedy about a white college basketballer who hustled street players, mostly black, who assumed that (see title). Could it be made today under that title? Probably.
Quite a few years before, there was a British film made, called If There Weren’t Any Blacks You’d Have to Invent Them. It began as a TV play in 1968 and was remade as a film in 1974. Could that be made, so titled, today? I doubt it. And yet it was part of Johnny Speight’s consistent and passionate advocacy of anti-racism. Mostly through satire — this is the man responsible for Alf Garnett and Archie Bunker.
An old Ngaio Marsh mystery called Black as He’s Painted…probably about to be re-issued with another title.
This is the kind of trivia to which the extremists among a movement begun again because of the brutal death of an unarmed man by those sworn to serve and protect have descended. God, yes, black lives matter — just as much as everyone else’s — and yes, we know there are microaggressions and worse, and they do drip, drip, drip away at a persons humanity. I cite Jo Brand’s comments on women on HIGNFY often enough to line up with the truth of that. But I have always associated revisionism with the Stalinists, and latterly their American counterparts, the American conservatives. A movement with legitimate aims should just knock it off.
And the 9000+ who are now “followers” (how cultish that sounds) of this instagram almost certainly know sod-all about opera, how it works, what it demands.
Maybe it”s the heat — I’m in the midst of a month-long heat wave here — but all this is making me tired. And as a friend observed to me long ago, when I am tired I get cranky…
There are people in the opera world that are racist. There are minorities that are racist towards other minorities. What I do not like is the generalization “Opera is racist”. Because there are also a lot of people in this business who aren’t.
Indeed. Generalizations hide reality which is usually more complex.
In India and Pakistan, where almost everyone is coloured in one way or another, quite some people discriminate against other people who are a bit darker than they are themselves. Absurdistan transcends any boundaries.
I guess they are deeply conserned with the fact that Porgy and Bess are only performed with black singers? Or, wait…
There’s one white role, memorably played by Larry Storch. Just one.
Times of upheaval always attract extreme elements.
That in no way invalidates the legitimate grievances being aired.
The measure of success in such times is a just outcome that ameliorates injustices without succumbing to those who espouse destructiveness or totalitarianism.
Responding to extremism with counter-extremism is no solution; it aggravates the situation. “One can’t expel Satan using Beelzebub.”
Very, very well said.
Indeed…..
With the perpetually offended Left I wonder how much longer we can perform operas like Abduction from the Seraglio, Italian Girl in Algiers and others that could upset some in the middle east.
Opera is European. Europe was/is predominantly white. Especially so during the apotheosis of opera as an artform.
Are the same voices also complaining of African drumming being racist due to its being too black?
If creating more opportunities for diversity, we should do the same with ticket sales and allocations. Lets say, only allow 50% of an audience to be white?
Opera companies – what do you think? If opera is ‘too white’, you won’t be wanting majority white money – or its patron support? How about it i.e limiting who can fund you?
…But it doesn’t quite work that way, does it?
The point of African drumming is interesting.
Is the observation, or let’s say: opinion, that ethnic Japanese are best in Japanese drumming, a racist opinion? Or saying Japanese drumming is a Japanese art form?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7HL5wYqAbU
It is the difference between an innocent observation which may be factual, and a prejudiced opinion intended to exclude people on ethnic grounds.
Traditional Chinese ‘hand dancing’ is supposed to be only performed by ethniccally-Chinese people, for the simple reason that it is a Chinese art form. Ethnicity here is not a form of discrimination, of excluding white Westernes or black Africans, but of presentation type, of presentation style, so: an aesthetic motivation. Chinese hand-ballet just looks better if performed by Chinese.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqtjb0LjC3c
But one cannot conclude from this that European classical music, because born from white European periods, should only be performed by white European people. And thinking this through, also African drumming and Chinese hand-ballet should, in prinicple, also be performable by people who are not ethnically-Chinese. But the difference between Chinese hand-ballet and Western classical music is that the visual aspect with the Chinese ballet is part of the art form, while visuals are irrelevant with Western classical music. Japanese drumming also includes an important visual aspect, so: only Japanese please. If African drumming does not use visuals, it is the same as classical music concerning the relevance of what you see during a performance.
A culture is independent from ethnicity. But still, it can be justfied that for aesthetic reasons of presentation, one type of ethnicity could be chosen over another, and that is not necessarily racist.
I think what is needed is a Ministery of Racist Complexity to sort all of this out once and for all.
If you bothered actually reading what people are saying, you’d see that they’re not complaining that opera is “too white”. They’re complaining that the opera world is hostile to non-white artists, particularly black artists.
Racist accusations are racist. Philistines. They deserve for their brains to continue to rot.
Opera is getting as bad as NASCAR. Anyone here know what NASCAR is? They had a horrid “racist” incident that turned out to be a complete hoax. The FBI sent 15 agents to investigate while lawless mobs are tearing down statures of Grant and Lincoln. The instigator of the hoax is now considered a hero. Now opera is getting race hysteria too.
https://www.totalprosports.com/2020/06/23/nascar-fan-provides-evidence-that-bubba-wallace-noose-story-was-just-a-garage-pull-rope-pics/
The accusations of racism are lately far exceeding the incidents of racism and in my opinion that makes the accusations racist. The ANC has introduced more race-based legislation in S Africa than there was under the old apartheid system, but no one’s rioting. People are finding racism in Kellogg’s Rice Krispies and Coco Pops, in Eskimo Pies, in Robertson’s jams, and more. It’s no wonder it’s now found in opera, orchestras and composing.
Have you even bothered to read the incidents?
The Western World has reached a new level of stupid. Everyone is choosing sides and no one is working together. Because of this the fringes on each side are furiously trying to normalize and that’s when it becomes dangerous. The reason we are at this point is a number of countries threw caution to the wind over the last decade or so and elected leaders that would be unacceptable at any other time. The creepy fringe elements are thus enabled to lurk unabated and unquestioned. Opera and Symphonies are racist clubs, organizations, loosely affiliated groups etc. etc. are a fringe offshoot of those lurkers. The West now is due for a major correction and a hard pull back to the center.
I just learned that chess is racist too. White always goes first. I can’t believe I never realized that is racist before. I wonder why.
I don’t agree with the chess game being racist. That white goes first, offers black more time to think and to prepare for its attack. The game was invented in the year 346 AD, in its early form, in what is now Kenia, by a tribe who had unduly suffered from inroads by the Romans.
Did any of you actually take a look at the instagram accounts? Maybe read through some of the first-hand accounts of the racist behavior found in cultural institutions before you jump into the comments to debate whether or not modern day liberal Americans are the new Nazis.