European Opera is Not ‘White’ Music: National Public Radio says about the dumbest thing it could possibly say when it comes to opera

American Thinker ^ | 10/30/2023 | Leah E. Stevens

[SeekAndFind]

In October 2023, an official responsible for programming at North Carolina public radio station WCPE rejected broadcasting several operas being produced this season at the New York Metropolitan Opera. An article, now scrubbed from the net, entitled “North Carolina Public Radio Station Rejects Contemporary Operas” explains that the programmer cited her Christian faith and viewpoint that the operas are vulgar and inappropriate for children as reasons for declining to broadcast them.

The viewpoint intolerance and anti-Christian cultural fascism of NPR and institutions such as the N.Y. Met are fanatical. It was intolerable that a single dissident public radio station would be allowed to decline to broadcast opera believed to be disrespectful to the Bible.

There was a firestorm of outrage against the station official, and her decision was quickly reversed.  From a National Public Radio (NPR) article:

WCPE’s protest came at a time when the Metropolitan Opera is eager to showcase its commitment to recently written operas and works from outside the traditional canon of music written by white men. Three of the operas that WCPE planned to reject in the 2023-24 season were written by Black or Mexican composers. This past April, WCPE also refused to broadcast another Met-produced opera written by a Black composer that included LGBTQ themes.

This victory lap paragraph encapsulates the cultural ignorance, bigotry, and stupidity of the progressive mind and why NPR should not get a penny of taxpayer money.

The first point of ignorance is that race and sexuality are “contemporary” themes. Race and sexuality are the oldest hats on the rack of American culture. These political fixations have been choking the life out of American art and culture for fifty years. Consider the so-called smash hit Hamilton. Its initial casting call was pure racism — no whites could try out.

[Miami Rebel]

Yes, and it’s closer to the original book than to the Kubrick movie.

[Miami Rebel]

Tales of Hoffman is great AND his only opera. We happened to be in New York and saw a wonderful, Dali-esque production at the Met.

By dumb luck the scheduled Olympia was indisposed and the replacement was Rachele Gilmore who made her Met debut as a cover. She got one of the biggest ovations I ever heard in that theater, and I’d seen Sutherland, Pavarotti, Kraus, Carreras, Vickers, Sills, and Jessye Norman there. You can see a video of the performance of it on youtube, Search “rachele gilmore doll song.”

[nopardons]

Thanks for the suggestion; I shall try to find it on YouTube!

You've seen a LOT of the GREATS and some of my favorites, in person, which is wonderful!