"Did NOBODY think this through ?" Topic

It gave offence – well, well, there's a surprise :

link

? What I can't believe is that someone must of sat down in a meeting at some point and said "Hey! I've had this great idea for a new intrepretation of the opera!" and then everyone else went "Yeah!"

I was listening to a review on the morning radio news, and even the Opera critic sounded as if he could hardly belioeve what he was saying

"It opens with Tannhauser in an SS officer's uniform shooting jewish concentration camp prisoners…."

But, it's …. it's …. ART!

But not, it would seem, popular art.

It has long been recognised that great art can be shocking. See Robert Hughes' ‘The Shock of the New'.

Unfortunately that has led to many people – especially aspiring artists – buying into the logical fallacy that if something shocking, it must be great art.

Hence Damien Hurst, and this opera.

Not being Opera savvy, I Googled Tannhauser. (There's an umlaut in there somewhere, but I don't know how to put them in.)
It's about a singing contest?
OK, it all makes sense now.

It's been done

YouTube link

My first reaction is to be totally disgusted….then I started to think. Are the Nazis the heroes? If so this is garbage and should be flushed. However, if they're the bad guys, perhaps we should consider this for a moment.

For the people of Europe to be reminded of the horrors perpetrated on the world by the Nazis/Germans is not necessarily a bad thing. The Japanese have done a great job forgetting what they did in WWII and teaching their children it was the fault of the US. (A friend of mine taught English in Japan for a year and the standard answer to everything the Japanese did during the war was, "You nuked us").

I'm not saying I agree with the show, but I am encouraged by the audiance reaction. If presented in the right way, this may not be a bad thing.

It is an unfortunate aspect of the times in which we live. Outrageous behavior sells. The more outrageous the behavior, the more media coverage and the more media coverage the more attention and ultimately money.

In case it needs repeating, money isn't everything.

Wagner was an anti-semite to begin with and this really does nothing to improve his reputation. Oh, and your title is so correct 20thMaine. Why people equate "Hip and Edgy" with "good" is beyond me. At some point all of this "in your face" art it just becomes disgusting and obscene. Art is a communications medium and sometimes all it does is shout, scream and babble incoherently saying nothing of substance or import. As is the case here.

Here's the synopsis from the Met's site: link

I struggle to see how this tale that could possibly be linked to Nazis or the Holocaust, at least with a positive modern message coming out. Perhaps the Nazis and Hitler are equated with Venus (the apparent "devil" of the tale, who has mislead the poet/singer Tannhauser into a false version of love, leading him away from God and away from his true love). Okay, one could put that forth as the Nazis and Hitler having mislead Germany into a false and evil path (and thus, the Holocaust represents, I gather, the evils of this false nationalistic love). But that's extremely problematic for Jewish viewers because the solution that redeems Tannhauser is to call on the Virgin Mary! Regardless of my own religious views, I wouldn't blame any Jewish audience member for being highly offended that the implied solution to the evils of Nazism is to cease being a Jew!

And that's all leaving aside the complete visual disconnect between the horrors of Nazism and an opera that is exploring the nature of love. The audience simply won't be able to connect the imagery to the director's point (whatever it is)— especially when the audience knows that Wagner was anti-semitic, and that Hitler used Wagnerian ideals as part of the rhetoric and symbolism of Nazism.

20thMaine is absolutely correct— Nobody thought this through. They may indeed have rationalized a symbolic intent, or thought "We'll save Wagner from the Nazis by making his villains Nazis," without ever realizing that in the end, the only thing anybody would see would be Nazis.

Heck, the Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder's characters in The Producers should have just done this approach… wait, maybe that scenario ought to be investigated— 'cause if you wanted to put on a guaranteed flop, this production fits the bill…

The Producers was a planned satire. I'm pretty sure this was not.