He said that 60 eager amateurs were keen to appear naked before an audience for the premiere, but only 35 made the final cut.
You don't say?...............
Posted on 04/11/2008 8:41:32 AM PDT by NorCoGOP
A German opera house is to unveil a provocative new production staged in the ruins of New York's World Trade Centre.
It features naked pensioners and Mickey Mouse masks, Hitler salutes and Elvis impersonators.
The self-consciously outrageous September 11th staging of Verdi's 'A Masked Ball' has been dreamed up by Austrian director Johann Kresnik.
He has described the concoction as a populist critique of modern American society, aimed at showing up the disparities between rich and poor, which attracting a large audience.
"It will be a different, a provocative masked ball on the ruins of the World Trade Centre," he told reporters before Saturday's premiere. “The naked stand for people without means, the victims of capitalism, the underclass, who don’t have anything anymore."
Rehearsals suggest that Mr Kresnik's anti-capitalist staging is unlikely to be celebrated for its subtlety.
Some of the cast are dressed in soldiers uniforms, or in the red white and blue of Uncle Sam, or in day-glow pink Elvis costumes, slashed to the waist. Many, however, appear to spend their time on stage not wearing anything at all.
They include dozens local pensioners, recruited by the opera house in Erfurt, eastern Germany, to appear naked wearing nothing but plastic Mickey Mouse masks.
"It’s a very beautiful, poetic scene," said Guy Montavon, the theatre’s general manager.
He said that 60 eager amateurs were keen to appear naked before an audience for the premiere, but only 35 made the final cut.
The staging deliberately toys with images that are extremely sensitive both in the US and Germany.
Foreign audiences may find naked singers cavorting in front of the iconic ruined mesh of World Trade Centre metalwork most provocative.
In Germany however, a female singer with a painted on toothbrush moustache performing a straight arm Nazi salute appears particularly conceived to outrage.
The obvious ostentation of the production prompted one local politician to call for locals to boycott the performances.
But that call has been completely ignored.
Indeed, though the production looks unlikely to win many prizes for the nuance of its message, Mr Kresnik has succeeded in his other aim, selling out the Erfurt opera house for the premiere.
Only a handful of tickets are available for subsequent performances later this month.
"One has to introduce new elements," he said. “Otherwise it is difficult to attract new theatregoers."
Didn't see this already posted, sorry if duplicated...
File under “Why There Won’t Always Be An England” dept.
Looks like Disney lawyers will have to cancel their weekend plans.
Naked “pensioners” ?................eeeeewwwwwww!!!!!!..............
Onlything missing is the Cross in a jar of pee...LAME GERMANS.
He said that 60 eager amateurs were keen to appear naked before an audience for the premiere, but only 35 made the final cut.
You don't say?...............
If you’ve seen “Cabaret” or “The Damned”, you know that live German stage shows are an acquired taste.
They couldn’t give away the backstage passes or after performance party passes.
Nothing quite points out the mental vacancy and idiocy of leftists like productions like this “art”. I’m sure there are many libs who are chagrined at these types of things but who go along with the game so as to not look like one of the crowd. Of course nasty capitalists have to be excoriated also. It simply can’t get any more stupid than this.
Oh my God - there’s a pic of the cast in Mickey Mouse masks on the link.
I thought I had inadvertantly stumbled upon a National Geographic web page about the plight of African Elephants.
I’m not going to look. Are they well fed victims of capitalism?
"It’s a very beautiful, poetic scene," said Guy Montavon,
2. The Producers anticipated this....
The director apparently didn't consider a Koran theme. I wonder why?
Speechless ping.
ART is dead.
Well fed euro-trash liberal/progressives who will stage this before an audience of well fed euro-trash anti-capitalistic anti-american millionaires who afterwords will go to the cast party to eat lobsters and caviar and talk about how evil Americans are.
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