Musical 'Aida' cancelled at Bristol University amid race row over 'cultural appropriation'

UK Telegraph ^ | October 4, 2016 | Sam Dean and Tom Morgan

[C19fan]

It is a story of war between two nations, the conflict of love rivals and the looming fate of death.

But the antagonistic themes of Aida seem to have spilled into the wings after a student production of the musical Aida was cancelled amid a row over suggestions of “cultural appropriation”.

A theatre at the University of Bristol said yesterday it had cancelled all showings after a revolt by students.

[Kriggerel]

You know what’s scary? I, (and I imagine a large segment of society, as well), have now been bashed over the head long and hard enough with the term ‘cultural appropriation’, that I have finally begun to truly grok what Hermann Göring meant, when he was quoted as saying: “Wenn ich ‘kultur’ höre, entischere ich meinen Browning!” (badly translated as “Whenever I hear the word ‘culture’, that’s when I reach for my revolver.” That particular phrase also spawned a punk song with the same title by Mission of Burma, which was later covered by Moby.

I really HAVE reached the point, where hearing the phrase ‘cultural appropriation’ makes me want to reach for a revolver.

[xp38]

Don’t forget air conditioning. Oh wait John Kerry wants us all to stop using that.

[Donglalinger]

“Bring out the fainting couches for Gilbert & Sullivan’s ‘The Mikado’!”

Too late it has already been cleansed

The Mikado in Italy: Leave the Fan, Take the Cannoli

https://www.sfcv.org/music-news/the-mikado-in-italy-leave-the-fan-take-the-cannoli

‘Mikado’ gets a makeover to remove ‘orientalism’

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3432917/posts

[Hatteras]

Just easin' on down the misappropriated road...

[jjotto]

Wow, homos writing and singing about heterosexual relationships is now ‘cultural appropriation’!

[jiggyboy]

I look forward to the day when one of these places realizes it’s really better to start cancelling the students instead.

[Dr. Sivana]

The early Elvis and Beatles would have been in trouble no doubt.

And guys like Fats Domino, who made WAY more money off of the royalties from Pat Boone's covers than he did off his own sales in the early years, and Chuck Berry, who would have never gone mainstream if the genre remained walled off, would have been eventually wound up playing small clubs for chump change.

[Romulus]

when Kathleen Battle played Zerlina in Marriage of Figaro?

I for one would be totally against that.

[ConservativeDude]

So presumably this is the Elton John/Tim Rice musical, not the Verdi opera?

You know what is sad but I guess sort of amusing is that these performers I’m pretty sure are not exactly conservatives...and Elton John is...well...pretty into the whole “diversity” thing. The left is eating its own here. (Regardless, I really do feel for the performers who worked their asses off and their work gets smashed b/c of the feelings of people who have invested NOTHING in the production....truly, truly unjust).

With regards to the Aida musical, I saw it many years ago, and Mickey Dolenz played one of the lead rolls. I was like, “HEY! That guy is HUGE! He was in the Monkees!”. But his playbill write up did NOT mention it! I guess he was sort of trying to rise up above his Monkees days. That drove me nuts.

Recently, however, I have notieced that Mickey has toured with the other surviving band members, after Davey’s death. So I guess he has come to grips with “once a Monkee, always a Monkee”....and I think that’s a good thing.

In any event. Aida (both Verdi, and Elton) is a great work which needs to be performed more. Not less.

:(

[Romulus]

You can take it from Shakespeare that Othello is black.

[Sans-Culotte]

I for one would be totally against that.

What, her playing Zerlina? She was totally cute in the part, and had the high soprano voice the part called for. Likewise, she was a fine Susanna, too.

[IronJack]

And Kanye West.

[miss marmelstein]

I still remember when working at Barnes & Noble, a pompous bastard looking for a book about Cleo and my mentioning her being a Greek. He was furious at me! Thought she was Egyptian. I left him to his stupidity.

[crusty old prospector]

I have seen her play Pamina in The Magic Flute, too.

[Sans-Culotte]

You can take it from Shakespeare that Othello is black.

Indeed. A Moor may not have been black historically, but Shakespeare obviously referred to Othello as black - "Her name, that was as fresh As Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black As mine own face."

[Rebelbase]

Indoor plumbing, modern communications, automobiles, computers, etc. Will the minority marxists abandon these for cultural purity?

[miss marmelstein]

I think Othello, in theater history, has been played as everything from an Arab to an African - depending on who wanted to play him and their own interpretation. Edwin Booth played him as a prince out of the seraglio while Paul Robson, obviously, played him as an African. And you’re right, many references to black and sooty skin within the play.

I like that sometimes in the opera, the singer will black his face but leave his neck and arms white!

[DUMBGRUNT]

The folks who can do little more than beat jungle drums

Every note of music ever produced, can be traced back to a jungle drum!!!

And everyone knows Beethoven was descended from the Moors!

[Sans-Culotte]

I think Othello, in theater history, has been played as everything from an Arab to an African - depending on who wanted to play him and their own interpretation.

In any case, Shakespeare went to some pains to make Othello obviously different and foreign to the Venetians in the play. I have no problem with Othello being played as an Arabic type, but he would need to dress in a different fashion than the Venetians and should be at least a little swarthy so as to match the descriptions of "blackness" in the play.

His foreignness and perhaps, overt masculinity make him appear as a heroic figure to Desdemona and other Venetians, and his blackness makes him an unacceptable son-in-law to Brabantio.

[mrs. a]

Yikes - correction - she was Zerlina in Don Giovanni - now who’s the idiot? I hang my head in shame.