Posted on 07/21/2022 11:22:47 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
African American soprano Angel Blue has said she will not perform in an opera in Italy this month because another production held at the theater earlier this year featured performers in blackface.
The 38-year-old Grammy Award-winner announced she is bowing out of La Traviata at Verona Arena, in Verona, Italy, later this month.
She blasted the theater as 'archaic' for mounting another Giuseppe Verdi opera, Aida, that featured performers in blackface.
They include Anna Netrebko, a white Russian soprano, has been cast in the titular role of Aida in Verdi’s opera - despite the character being an Ethiopian princess.
In promotional material, Netrebko appears with dark makeup over her face and body, and wearing a wig with long black braids.
Angel Blue called the practice 'offensive, humiliating, and outright racist'.
Angel Blue, however, was still listed on Saturday on the arena's website as singing the role of Violetta in La Traviata on July 22 and 30.
The theatre said it was hoping that Blue, who is black, would accept an invitation to meet with Arena officials for 'dialogue' over the issue.
The arena said it had 'no reason nor intent whatsoever to offend and disturb anyone's sensibility'.
For decades, US civil rights organizations have publicly condemned blackface – in which white performers blacken their faces – as dehumanizing black people by introducing and reinforcing racial stereotypes.
This summer, the arena has mounted performances of Aida based on a 2002 staging of the opera classic by Italian director Franco Zeffirelli, who died in 2019. That staging uses blackface.
'Dear Friends, Family, and Opera Lovers,' began the soprano's Instagram post. 'I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that I will not be singing La Traviata at Arena di Verona this summer as planned.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
The hypocrisy and their blindness to it is amazing.
They blather on and on about “cultural appropriation”. OK...what are you doing singing Opera? That’s for White people only - according to YOUR OWN ideology.
For that matter, what are you doing using electricity, air conditioning, radio, television, antibiotics, airplanes, cars, bicycles, diesel engines, telephones, the internet, universities....the entire modern world. That was invented by White people. So therefore you using any of that is cultural appropriation according to YOUR OWN ideology.
Fortunately I’m not a Leftist so I’m not bound by their idiotic ideology but Alinsky tactics would require us to hold them to theirs.
Good riddance to her/it.
The opera will survive.
OK Angel, do what you gotta do - it’s your paycheck. But going to the press and whining is just stupid. Nobody really cares why you quit. So just revel in the satisfaction with your own moral superiority - quietly.
Spoiled American blacks rise up again.
But it’s ok for a black man to play Alexander Hamilton in that abomination of a so-called musical titled ‘Hamilton.’
I never saw “Hamilton”, but have seen previews of it on TV before it came to a TN theater. Hamilton was black, amd so was EVERYONE ELSE that I could see. WTF? How offensive.
“Her best singing days may already be behind her.”
I’m not sure, but didn’t Beverly Sills have strong career maybe into her 50s? I guess it depends on what a person’s range is, as you say. (Julie Andrews — love her voice.)
I’m sure that guy doesn’t work for Disney,checkout the Fairy Godmother in the new pinochio
Wait! I think I’m beginning to see the problem…
The Amazing Criswell
3 days ago
Blue’s approach is anti-black. The character of Aida is a black Ethiopian slave in the charge of Pharaoh’s daughter, the princess Amneris. Amneris loves army general Radames, but Radames loves the slave Aida. The blackness and slave status of Aida strengthens the drama of the love triangle, especially in 1870 when the show premiered. Think Othello and the opera Otello. So Blue and other deniers are essentially saying that if a white plays Aida, she must play the character as a white person. Why? The converse would be that if a black plays a white character, she must play it as a white. Why?
If a character is supposed to be black it should be played as black, as has been done since before Shakespeare. Otherwise it changes and weakens the story.
Netrebko does still sing opera, just not in New York where she was fired for politically incorrect thoughts.
Yet Jake From State Fame became Watermelon Man overnight
And this bitch nor anyone else didn’t say a word
Didn’t ‘Hamilton’ use a lot of black actors playing white men? I guess I’m missing something.
The Blue Man Group vehemently object
And all those token blacks on Renaissance-type TV commercials
But whatever favors blacks, no matter how stupidly racist or contradictory, is the rule.
Just like drug addled, overdosed career criminal Georgie F, they are ALL VICTIMS !!
Not to mention Placido Domingo in Verdi's "Otello", since the topic is opera.
prima donna walks with chip on shoulder
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