How Al Gore is Ruining Opera

[Ed Hudgins]

How Al Gore is Ruining Opera

By Edward Hudgins

[A longer version of this piece will appear in The New Individualist.]

I love opera! Thus recently at the Kennedy Center I saw Die Walküre, the second installment of Richard Wagner's monumental four-part cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, about gods and goddesses, giants and dwarfs, and mortal human heroes. The music, singing and acting were superb. But the program notes seemed like Al Gore channeling Karl Marx.

Consider "dramaturg" Cori Ellison's description (bold in the original) of the opera's themes. First, nature:

"The despoiling of nature through greed and ambition begins even before the stage action does, with Wotan sacrificing his own eye to drink from the Well of Wisdom and then mutilate the World Ash tree to create his spear. The destruction of our nation's environment also began early in our history, with the violation of our rich natural resources and the pollution and disfigurement of our landscape, which will surely lead to our demise if left unchecked."

How terrible that someone had the wisdom to rip metals from the guts of Sacred Earth for the orchestra's horns, trumpets, trombones and tuba; to murder World Ash trees for violins, violas, cellos, basses and stage settings; and to extract marble--the torn-out teeth of Mother Nature--to build the Kennedy Center itself!

Next, love:

"Alberich's renunciation of love in order obtain riches is startlingly familiar; it is but the Ring's first visible example of the sacrifice of love and ethics on the altars of capitalism and temporal power. One need only read the newspapers . . . to see this theme played out daily in America."

Gee, not even a "Thank you" to all those capitalists whose money built the Kennedy Center, either through charitable donations because they love music or, unfortunately, through their taxes for government grants to the arts. Oh, and the staging was a stale stereotype; king-of-the-gods Wotan was portrayed as-- everyone in unison now--an evil businessman, in pinstriped suit and all! How unoriginal!

Finally, feminism:

"More subtly embedded in the Ring, but perhaps most personally important to our team, is the theme of woman's nature and role in society. The Ring portrays men as the world's destroyers, while women are its sustainers, sages--and sometimes passive victims."

But this opera was actually composed by Richard Wagner, a male. Plácido Domingo, America's greatest tenor, the Washington National Opera's director and a male did an outstanding job in the role of Siegmund, a male heroic character, whose son in the next two Ring operas was Siegfried, a hero and--you guessed it--a male!

Wagner does treat greed and power-lust in the Ring. But the dramaturg's political bromides aren't so much an analysis of what Wagner really meant as a case-study of "post-modernism." This is the notion that things can mean whatever observers want them to mean. In fact, it is an abrogation of standards in order to damn all things Western, while pushing a leftist world view to be taken not as interpretation but, rather, as gospel.

It's remarkable that such nonsense is flung into the faces of opera audience members who, for the most part, represent those universal, Western values and that they aren't appalled enough to call Plácido and explain that, as creators of the wealth that supports the opera, they could take their money elsewhere if they're considered such exploiters.

In one scene in Die Walküre Wotan explains that "I can create only slaves; a free man must create himself." To be human is to create wealth, as we Americans do when we employ the material and energy resources of the physical world for our survival and our spiritual well-being, for example, for opera houses, orchestras and performances of great beautiful. Let's hope that in the future those who benefit from the beneficence of creators will thank them rather than spit in their faces.

-------

Hudgins is executive director of The Atlas Society, an Objectivist organization that celebrates human achievement.

[John Dailey]

Ed:

~ Domingo? DIE WALKURE? DER RING...?

~ I'm really starting to envy you.

LLAP

J:D

PS: This 'Cori Ellison' doesn't have an e-m address given, I take it? Sometimes in the playbills such are given. And, what's his position granting him the post-modernly 'summing-up' of the opera, anyway?

[John Dailey]

Addendum:

~ Down a similar line, I remember when the fad of 'contemporizing' classical operas (back in the '70's?) started up, and I caught my absolute fave, CARMEN (on PBS), 'updated' to some turmoil in S.A. (EVITA was popular already, so...) During one of the intermissions, there was Roberta Peters (who never played the part, I believe) praising the modernizing of classical pieces, specifically commenting on Carmen no longer having the sultry 'bare shoulder' look. All I could think was: "Wow; such substantial improving!" I had taped it to watch again, but, after the 1st watch recorded over it.

~ Talk about ruining an opera...and I'm not even what anyone would call a 'fan' of opera (except CARMEN)!

LLAP

J:D

[John Dailey]

Boy, when I get on a roll...ADDENDUM:

~ Then there was when Richard Thomas did PEER GYNT. Hey, he was good, but, the 'near' contemporizing of director Mark Lamos' style (not time) at the Hartford Stage making very short-shrift use of Grieg's superb music finally turned me off to 'updating' hinted at in style or chronology re any/all known 'classics', literary or musical.

~ HAMLET or ROMEO&JULIET in a present inner-city just don't cut it, 'timeless' though such be (though an exception might be Hopkins having done a surreal version of Shakes' CORIOLANUS; thought-provoking, I grant.)

ED: be thanful that the only 'ruination' you found was in the 'playbill' explanation-of-proper-perspectives. They could've multidiversificationally done the whole opera in a contemporary setting of Western China vis-a-vis an oriental bringing a 'ring' back to Iran and having to deal with mythical Djinn and oriental dragons, throwing an 'in-joke' in re Harry and 'golems.'

LLAP

J:D

[Greybird]

Witty title! Absolutely disgusting incident! From inside the Beltway, though, thus not really surprising.

I'll amend, slightly, a quote about science from Atlas Shrugged, and say: "Governmental arts criticism is a contradiction in terms."

This reminds me of my own lobbying, so to speak, of the Arts & Organizations board at (wholly private) Northwestern University to show "The Fountainhead" in its Tuesday-and-Thursday double-feature film series, back in 1978. After several months, they acceded and scheduled it. We of the nascent Objectivist club duly publicized it.

What we couldn't control was the first film on the bill that evening, which was "Leave Her to Heaven," an overbaked murder melo with Gene Tierney and Cornel Wilde. Not really a complementary choice, with the only common actor being Ray Collins (Roger Enright).

But the other element that was out of our hands was the descriptive flyer. The A&O Film Board commentator lamely tried to shoehorn the two films together, comparing Tierney's Ellen with Patricia Neal's Dominique as being perverse, controlling bitches. Farfetched, especially in Dominique not having murdered anybody ... but I always thought that character, however compelling, remained more than a bit opaque in motivation, on page or screen, so I let that go.

What was worse was the conclusion of the half-page describing "The Fountainhead," though: The Wynand Building was alleged to be a phallic symbol. Now, that was being perverse for the hell of it. I wanted to strangle a fellow student that night ... get down, get down, I said "wanted" {rueful smile}

Fortunately, the flyers mostly went into the trash unread. The lighting in the auditorium was too dull to read them, anyway. And the real crowd, from all over "Chicagoland," was there for the second feature, with cheers erupting at the first note of Max Steiner's score and after Gary Cooper had his hair whipping around in the rarefied air. It remained an extremely pleasant night.

[Chris Grieb]

Ed; Is there anyone to complain to. Doesn't the DC Opera have q&A with some of the principals. Going there and complaining or sending a copy of your review might help.

Edited April 12, 2007 by Chris Grieb

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Ed,

How could you?

If the ancient civilizations had been more environmental conscious, dragons would not have become extinct. Just look at how we have been destroying our planet over the centuries! Anyway, I think swords should have been regulated ages ago and made out of biodegradable steel.

(I didn't post until now because I was angry. I am strongly against polluting great art, even program notes, with political agendas. The universal human values presented get shot all to hell that way. Look behind Cori Ellison and I have no doubt you will see applications for funding from pro-environmentalist organizations. When I was younger and active in the arts, we called this prostitution.)

Michael

[Ed Hudgins]

Michael -- Maybe the environmentalist was sort of right. If Siegfried hadn't reforged his sword Notung in that famous scene in the opera bearing his name, he wouldn't have driven the dragon (formerly a giant) to extinction and those friendly creatures could be seen roaming the world rather than just fake ones in operas, Chinese New Year parades and big-budget special effects movies!

It's too bad that in attempts to be "relevant," opera producers obscure the universal themes in the operas' stories.

[Judith]

Ed --

I read a review of the new production of "Die Walkure" in the Post, and I was wondering what you would think of it when I read that it was set under a highway overpass. :sick: Aren't there limits to how many distracting '60s-type gimmicks that these directors can invent? It's really tiresome. I mentioned in the "Wagner" thread that my DVD of "Tristan" has the first act played out on a cruise ship. It's really silly and detracts from the opera. I see it as being deliberately disrespectful of the original material.

Judith