{"id":930,"date":"2015-09-28T13:34:04","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T20:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/?p=930"},"modified":"2015-09-28T13:34:04","modified_gmt":"2015-09-28T20:34:04","slug":"darkest-depths-of-the-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/2015\/09\/darkest-depths-of-the-soul.html","title":{"rendered":"DARKEST DEPTHS OF THE SOUL?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The inconceivable advocacy of a large percentage of Americans for Donald Trump to be the Republican Presidential nominee in 2016 began to make a little more sense upon reading the New York Times<\/em> critic’s ode to political correctness in his September 25th review of the Metropolitan Opera’s seasonal premiere of Puccini’s Turandot<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The writer gave over much of his concluding paragraphs to yet another attempt to impose political correctness on the arts, a concept that turns so many against what often happens in both politics and television today. His dismay at the actions of Ping, Pang, and Pong, likening them to representatives of improper “Orientalism”, completely ignores the fact that the three are commedia figures, traditional in Italian opera and conceived by Puccini and his librettists as relief from the basically grim story.\u00a0 If they were not made up as Chinese, they would make no sense at all, and they actually are more sympathetic characters than two of the three principals. Perhaps Turandot should wear a simple dress, but she would hardly then be the Princess of ancient China. The writer brings up approvingly the cancellation of The Mikado<\/em> in Seattle and New York. As Norman Lebrecht wrote in Slipped Disc a few days ago, The Mikado<\/em> is a satire on the British upper class, understood at the time and even now and had nothing to do with Japan or Japanese traditions.<\/p>\n

\"comedia\"<\/a>If Ping, Pang and Pong are offensive to the Chinese, why was a new and very grand production of Turandot created for the opening of the Olympics in China? The Chinese government, which put up the money to build the production, is certainly not in the business of making fun either of its country’s history or its tradition. And what does the Times<\/em> headline “The darkest depths of the soul” mean? If anyone wants the dark depths of the soul in opera, go to Rigoletto, Wozzeck,<\/em> or even Puccini’s Il tabarro<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We seem to be reaching a point where nothing onstage that could conceivably annoy anyone can be exhibited. Many operas were composed in the nineteenth century located in what was then called “exotic” locations. Are we to discard The Pearl Fishers<\/em> and Lakme<\/em> just because Bizet and Delibes set love stories in a fanciful Ceylon and India? Must we cancel upcoming Carmens<\/em> because gypsies are annoyed at their treatment in Bizet’s opera? Spain in 1875 was just as “exotic” to the French as India or Ceylon.<\/p>\n

\"Pinkerton\"<\/a>The logical outcome of this doctrine of political correctness in opera makes about as much sense as a picket line outside the next production of Madama Butterfly<\/em> manned by the officers of the U.S. Navy. Arguably, they really do have something to complain about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The inconceivable advocacy of a large percentage of Americans for Donald Trump to be the Republican Presidential nominee in 2016 began to make a little more sense upon reading the New York Times critic’s ode to political correctness in his September 25th review of the Metropolitan Opera’s seasonal premiere of Puccini’s Turandot. The writer gave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":934,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions\/934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}