I suppose it is revenge for Hip Hop.
Posted on 04/12/2008 6:11:45 AM PDT by Leisler
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."
I suppose it is revenge for Hip Hop.
I detect a little "Springtime for Hitler" syndrome here. A lot of people are going to take it as comedy.
And the chick with the toothbrush moustache and combover (but what's with the eye makeup?) is going to hyperextend her elbow if she isn't careful.
Those are the ugliest nudes I ever saw. Most people definitely should keep their clothes on.
I'll be there!
I'll be wearin' nuthin' but a Mickey Mouse mask!
Why doesn't this clymer Kresnik concern himself with Austria and the rest of Europe instead of worrying about what we're doing? You know he'll be one of the first to offer himself to his new Muslim masters.
I have totally stopped going to the opera. Here in Los Angeles, they adore these German existentialist directors, who put underpants on the singers and make political statements out of Mozart and Verdi.
At the last one I attended, when the director came out, I warned my husband and then I boo’ed loudly. A lot of people joined me.
The PR folks told me that ‘people just love our innovative settings.’ My friend, who sings in the chorus, said people hated them and there was ALWAYS booing.
What if you gave an opera and NOBODY comes...
If anything screams “Boycott Me” this does.
So it's a dem convention?
Ooooooh, aren’t they daring.
One man's treasure is another man's garbage.
Austrians have returned to their beloved Adolf Schicklegruber I see.
Damned Nazis and the millions of people they butchered.
Axis Sally and Lord Haw Haw would approve. So would Arafat’s Nazi uncle.
Sounds to me like someone decided to SING one of Pastor Jeremiah Wright’s sermons. And the fat man sings...
It is an established TRADITION. You will lose the established audience with such stunts and the novelty of it will wear off once the first time audience has seen it (and paid $75-150 a ticket).
In the end NEITHER audience will go and you have degenerated to staging a Vegas revue with hip hoppers, impersonators, showgirls, and dance numbers.
No wonder Hunter S. Thompson wrote that Circus Circus is what the whole world would look like if the Nazis had won the war.
This production actually confirms this, as it is really first and foremost a costume production with some voice acts.
"He said that 60 eager amateurs were keen to appear naked before an audience for the premiere, but only 35 made the final cut."
Un dey turned avay ah-lmoscht HALF oft dem!!!
Woudln’t surprise me in the least if at some point it becomes like a Britney Spears concert (or any other big POP star) where the opera stars are actually lipsynching over a digital playback of the voice while the focus is on the choreography.
Caruso WILL take the stage again in the 21st century.
Austrian, eh? Vanguardist, eh? One can only presume, then, that the Hitler figure will be played from the coprophile angle.
The late Sam Kinison mentioned couples that purchased video cameras often wanted to film themselves having sex.
He discouraged it. He suggested that people leave porn to the professionals.
If anything screams “Boycott Me” this does.”
If anything says HUGE lawsuit from Disney, this does.
Walt and his heirs don’t take this kind of stuff lightly.
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