In stressed times, adults turn to opera
OperaFrom my latest essay in The Critic:
Days after The Zone of Interest won two Oscars in Hollywood, a shattering Holocaust opera was brought to the stage in Munich and Madrid. Like the Martin Amis novel on which Jonathan Glazer based his emotionless film, Mieczysław Weinberg’s The Passenger takes the perspective of a perpetrator: a female Auschwitz guard who encounters a former victim after the war. The SS woman is in shock, and we are expected to empathise.
Making art of the Holocaust is contentious. The worst crime in history cannot be contextualised, as Glazer attempted on Oscars night by comparing “dehumanising” Israeli actions to Auschwitz.
The Holocaust is an unique horror that can be understood from two standpoints: victim and oppressor. That bilateralism is what makes The Passenger one of the most essential operas of modern times…
Read on here.
Oh, give me a break. Nobody “turns to opera”. Opera is expensive entertainment for the elite, and no amount of soft-shoe press conferences, carefully curated hipster typography, naked bodies or other such nonsense is ever going to change that in anyone’s mind. Opera is what it is, and that’s fine, but nobody is “turning to it”. What, am I supposed to look up from my orchestra seat to see Adrienne Arsht, exhausted and crying from the run down work of being rich in these trying times, trembling in her box? Give me a freakin break.
And I thought I was cynical…
Go away, Please.
Apart from that, how has your day been?
Well, he did say adults.
I certainly don’t turn to live opera these days, because I have completely lost patience with Regietheater. I turn to opera at the comfort of my home, where I can watch naturalistic productions from past decades, directed by such giants as Otto Schenk or Franco Zeffirelli, follow the libretto in the subtitles, and occasionally pause if I miss a line.
But people who are new to opera should probably not attend ‘The Passenger.’
So it’s okay to compare 7.10 to the Holocaust, but not the destruction of Ģaza. It’s okay to call Hamas, Iran or anyone else Nazis, but Israel must not be censured, even when they act like you know who. Double standard?
False analogies. It is not OK to compare the Holocaust to anything in the Middle East.
Just because Israel has a right to defend itself doesn’t mean they have a license to commit war crimes.
Nevertheless: has Israel created an infrastructure of mass murder? Have they murdered millions of Palestinians?
)Nevertheless ,take away one “has” one “Have” and two question marks and you are right !
I understood your suggestion. Can you please reference sources to confirm your claim? Are you sure you are not overstating the case? Is the scale comparable to the Holocaust?
Was there an infrastructure in Rwanda? Were millions of Armenians killed?
Equating Stalin with Hitler on this matter may be easier. As far as I know, the Khmer Rouge didn’t use purpose built facilities either. What is your point? Are you questioning my main point, i.e. not equating Israel with the Holocaust? Sorry if my arguments were not watertight.
Interesting comment made by ? Titled Please. Maybe it is him or her who is out of touch with reality, a ticket to the anorexic, no voice Taylor Swift show is $2,000.00, and pretty much to all the shows of the country so-called stars…And let’s not forget rock bands, mettalica, and other “rythms” to bang your head against the wall until it bleeds!!! Music has always been the relief for the masses, GIVE ME A BREAK, whoever thinks otherwise
“Wagner’s high emotionality created stress-related physical problems that plagued him his entire life, chiefly a skin condition and problems digesting food” turned him to opera.
Sorry, but I have long had a problem with Holocaust fiction, novels, etc., or an opera based on them. There are more than six million plus, real stories, that could be, and deserve to be explored.