# Today's Best Writer on Opera?



## Xavier (Jun 7, 2012)

*The Abduction of Opera*

_Can the Metropolitan Opera stand firm against the trashy productions of trendy nihilists?_

_"Mozart's lighthearted opera The Abduction from the Seraglio does not call for a prostitute's nipples to be sliced off and presented to the lead soprano. Nor does it include masturbatino, urination as foreplay, or forced oral sex. Europe's new breed of opera directors, however, know better than Mozart what an opera should contain. So not only does the Abduction at Berlin's Komische Oper feature the aforementioned activities; it also replaces Mozart's graceful ending with a Quentin Tarantino-esque bloodbath and the promise of future perversion"

"Welcome to Regietheater (German for "director's theater"), the style of opera direction now prevalent in Europe. Regietheater embodies the belief that a director's interpretation of an opera is as important as what the composer intended, if not more so"_

Read here:

http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_3_urbanities-regietheater.html

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Well I often think she is... Heather Mac Donald's brilliant piece is a superbly argued aesthetic diatribe against the idiocy that is Regietheater. It's a very long article but required reading for all opera lovers.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I would attend such a production just to see whether the effects are any good, but that's neither here nor there, I suppose. Actually I probably wouldn't attend, I have a hard enough time keeping myself from chuckling at straight opera productions, never mind this Grand Guignolesque buffoonery. Really, the impression I get from the scenes described in that article is one of comedy rather than horror, by which I mean that they have gone to such lengths to be overtly grotesque that it becomes hilarious simply by way of how ridiculous it is, much like the recent controversial (and really quite laughably rubbish) films _The Human Centipede_ and _A Serbian Film_. I think there is a place for that kind of content in opera, but I think it should be reserved for instances when the story specifically calls for it and not when someone uses bizarre logic to extract severed nipples and fetishistic urination from a Mozart love aria or whatever. Still, this mess sounds like it should at least be good for a laugh if it ever makes it to a DVD release.

As for the article itself, it's interesting and well written, exploring all sides of the "issue" in question. Best opera writer? I don't know, this is one of the few times I've actually read an article on opera, but it was a good read.


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