La Muette de Portici
In its 425 years of existence opera has played a part in many political events–The Marriage of Figaro, though very much neutralized from its French source, caused some anguish in Vienna, Verdi composed his first fifteen or so operas advocating an end to Austrian rule in Italy, and Berg’s Wozzeck dramatized the plight of the impoverished, undernourished and invisible humans ground underfoot by society. Though opera is not the popular medium it once was, it still can and should have something important to say when our government goes astray.
The current President has trampled on the first amendment to the Constitution in prejudicing Muslims; he has ignored the restrictions on nepotism, some legal and others unspoken that are part of our democratic tradition, possibly accepted collusion with Russia in his election, violated the Logan Act and the emolument clause in the United States Constitution, sadly accustomed all of us to our President’s saying what his spokeswoman called “alternate facts”, done everything possible to turn the American people against the honest reporting of the press, and now embarrassed all Americans by withdrawing from the climate accord, so grouping our great country with only Nicaragua and civil-war-torn Syria among all the nations of the world. King George III never did any more to harm our colonial ancestors than the current President has done in a little over three months.
At least since 1600 leaders have been most afraid of two things: comedy and the theater. Both have helped America in the recent past. Two comics in the 1950s in Houston defanged the then growing ultra-right Facts Forum, and the theaters and film have done much to make Americans realize the value of civil rights. Opera has one cause célèbre in its history, even clearer than the reaction to Verdi’s operas: in 1830 a Belgian audience was so inspired by a patriotic duet in an opera by Daniel Auber that they rose up in the theater and began the revolution that broke their country free from foreign control.
We have two huge institutions, plus the public, that can check a President’s power: the courts and the Congress, both equal to the executive in power. The courts have already acted by not allowing religious prejudice to win. The Congress is investigating, but has not acted. All members of Congress take an oath to defend the Constitution, and they should remember why their body was created by the first article of the United States Constitution, thus being more important to our forefathers than either the executive or the judicial branches of government.
Now entering my ninth decade, I was born when Franklin Roosevelt saved the country from what could have been anarchy or Communism, grew into my teenage when Eisenhower successfully stalled the advance of Communism, thrilled to the call of service and civil rights called for by Kennedy and Johnson, hailed Nixon’s rapprochement with China, believed along with Reagan that we in America represent the best of the world, and delighted in Obama’s principled and forthright internationalism.
Since I believe that the theater through the last five hundred years has been a Petri dish for freedom, hated by autocrats and beloved by libertarians, I call for more than even Saturday Night Live or the many television comics do: let one or more artists step forward who with comedy, drama, film, or even a new, popular opera can galvanize Americans into Constitutional action so that our country can again become what President Reagan called a sparkling city on a hill.
On a lighter note anyone who has not seen the following should do so. It is not only funny but scrupulously musical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz7SfkhJe74&feature=youtu.be
Speight Jenkins,
Your voice is sorely needed.
Thank you for this reasoning.
What is happening in our country, which should be leading the way to caring for our one precious world, is so devastating. History repeats itself and repeats itself, and the arts are so important in teaching us how to survive.
But… how to get this to the majority of the populace, so they learn there is a better way than the hating and hurting, which has been permitted and sanctioned for the last two years, and getting worse.
I am desolate except when I am at the opera, or a concert, or hiding in a museum.
We must let our voices be heard and get through to those who hate, those who have given up.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, from this long time Seattle Opera season ticketholder. (The video is hilarious!)
Kudos!
Thanks for sending. I forwarded it on to many
Friends.
Cynthia Bayley
Sorry Speight, but this opera loving lady – does not agree with you at all This Trump supporter and many others are not prejudiced against all Muslims – only the Muslims that want to kill innocent people all over the world in the name of their God.
I know personally a Syrian Christian family in Damascus. ISIS terrorists, who are all Muslim, have bombed the old Christian neighborhood that has been in Damascus since St. Paul. We never hear that on the AP news! Did you hear about the 4 Syrian Christians who were crucified on the Damascus road last month? My friends relatives and friends have been killed and are now in hiding.. Last year in 2016 -10,000 Syrian Immigrants came to the US only 56 were Christian.!
Your “Call to Action” should be to support HR 565 -“Save the Christians in the Middle East from Genocide Act”
I hate war and violence, but we are fighting a mortal enemy that wants to kill us and tells us so! President Trump has requested a temporary halt to 6 countries that have been terrorist hot beads. Indonesia has more Muslims that ANY OTHER COUNTRY. Yet, they are not on President’s Trump’s list. Why??
I’m very impressed by your esteemed position in the opera world. Congratulations on your long success. You have been very fortunate to do so. Perhaps you could examine both sides of the issues a bit more before making such grandiose statements.
Thanks for reading my reply. I am always ready to discuss openly.
Mr. Jenkins’ blog is not the place for extended comment wars, and arguing with Trump supporters is not unlike trying to explain parlando to a parakeet. If Trump’s entire biography of narcissism, ignorance, racism and black hole-strength childishness is not immediately evident, nothing I say can possibly penetrate.
And yet I did want to see if any of your claims could be confirmed or disconfirmed. Running my eye down your comment I figured I would start at the top, with your very first fact-checkable claim:
“ISIS terrorists, who are all Muslim, have bombed the old Christian neighborhood that has been in Damascus since St. Paul. We never hear that on the AP news!”
I wish I could say I was a crafty researcher but in fact, I was able to find this AP story, from 2012, in less than a minute:
http://www.toledoblade.com/World/2012/11/28/Syria-Twin-car-bombs-in-Damascus-kill-34-people.html
I have no doubt that thirty minutes of determined research could find numerous stories about numerous incidents in that hearbreakingly broken part of the world. But to what end?
As I say, if Trump’s entire life (and particularly the last six mind-boggling months) have not turned the light bulb on, what matter anything like the old-fashioned concept of “evidence”?
And by the way, now that alternative facts have been raised in status, allow me to point out that no one can find a single opera whose libretto was written in Italian.
PERFECT, SPEIGHT, You summed up the unbelievably dire situation perfectly. I only hope that the Attorneys General of the U.S. have enough clout to defuse some of the worst issues. Perhaps Congress will have the guts, eventually, to realize the disaster we are facing and begin IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS. Guess we’ll have to wait to see if the tax cuts go through. Then Congress will have had their pound of flesh and can finally do their job!
IMPEACHERA!! I’m still laughing! (Except that it’s actually a pretty serious matter.) Trust the opera world to come up with the best rejoinder.
On this theme, the excellent Victoria and Albert Museum in London will be putting on an exhibit entitled “Opera: Passion, Power and Politics” which will run from September 30, 2017 to February 25, 2018
https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/opera
A must-see for opera lovers!
When I shared this Opera vs. Trump video on Facebook the other day, my comment was, “This is why I love opera: fearless, smart, creative, and funny.” This applies to so many in the arts, and it is inspiring to see some stepping up to resist the current administration, but I agree we need more. Whatever your talent — words, music, dance, visual art — from high to low, come out and lead us, like the Free Instruments of Karma Marching Band in the Seattle March for Truth last Saturday, speak out and save us!
I can understand your antipathy toward Trump, but saying he has done more damage to Americans than King George is rather odd. Between 25,000 and 70,000 Americans in military service died fighting for independence during the Revolutionary War. (Accurate causality records were not kept during the period of history.) About 17,000 died while in captivity, mostly in small pox infested prison ships in the New York harbor – indeed a form of horror. The number seriously wounded or disabled by the war has been estimated from 8,500 to 25,000.
If there is anything the opera world needs, it’s a greater sense of reality. A genuinely meaningful political work about America would need to focus on more fundamental issues that one conman President. The social forces that created HUAC and the decimation of the intellectual world of the American left; the social and economic policies that created the massive destruction of our cities; our soul destroying, racially informed class system; the millions of deaths around the world caused by our imperialistic militarism; and the destruction created by unmitigated, globalist capitalism are some of the broader and much deeper issues that would be becoming of a true work of art. A form like opera must by necessity address more basic existential issues than simply challenging our current Mango Mussolini.
There are also the problems when an elephantine form like opera tries to react topically. The timeline for the creation of new operas often lasts around a decade. We can only hope that the Mango Mussolini will be a distant memory by then. Musical cabaret can tackle Trump. Sadly, the issues I mention above will almost certainly still be with us for decades to come and will still be a rich ground for the depths of opera. But alas, in our system of cultural plutocracy, that is exactly what the big donors will not want to support.
Wonderful Speight! You know the POWER of Opera and Theater and Music! This is
a call to arms! Each can do his or her part. Many thanks for this…….I will forward it Today.
Thanks for this Speight.
Indeed, opera, theater and comedy have always been an important weapon against authoritarian governments and dictatorships. Tyrants and egomaniacs such as the President of the United States are fearful of “being laughed at.” Yours is a country where legal subterfuges prevent the poor and dispossessed from voting and where a minority of voters can elect a President that can create the present chaos, bring you to international disputes and perhaps new wars. Under such circumstances perhaps satire, theater and opera can help more than the institutions you so much revere but are so far unable to stop or counteract the damage suffered in the last months. Lets hope that America will one day be the land where everybody can vote and a President with all this power to do evil can be directly elected by popular vote. Only then will America deserve to be called a modern democracy.
Speight,
As always,well said and well=produced! These have been awful political times, but I do see light at the end of the tunnel for all of this next January. If we can hold the guy to four years, there is hope we can restore something to our political system. But living here in Washington, it has been a sad and depressing scene to watch.
Hope all is well with you. I try to stay busy in retirement. We had an encouraging opera season blown away by the virus. It’s happened everywhere. May the arts survive the virus and Donald Trump! All my best, Dick