The 1875 work by Georges Bizet is one of the world’s most popular operas and the heroine, Carmen, works in a Spanish cigarette factory.
Carolyn Chard, General Manager of the [Western Australia] Opera, said the company made the decision not to program the opera after it secured the two-year deal with Healthway, the state government body that sponsors arts and community organisations to promote health messages.
“Carmen is an opera that is actually set in a tobacco factory, so that does present some difficulties if you’re promoting non-smoking and healthy work environments,” Ms Chard told 720 ABC Perth.
Carolyn Chard, General Manager of the [Western Australia] Opera, said the company made the decision not to program the opera after it secured the two-year deal with Healthway, the state government body that sponsors arts and community organisations to promote health messages.
“Carmen is an opera that is actually set in a tobacco factory, so that does present some difficulties if you’re promoting non-smoking and healthy work environments,” Ms Chard told 720 ABC Perth.
We await others in the dramatic arts community to follow the Western Australia Opera’s pioneering example. Surely, performances of Macbeth condone murder. Sophocles can only encourage incest. And it’s high time audiences realized La Traviata is a morally backwards tale that endorses the oppression of sexually liberated women.
UPDATE—Smoking is a bridge too far, but somehow the Metropolitan Opera deems this high art:
In 1985, New Yorker Leon Klinghoffer, 69, and his wife Marilyn took a cruise to celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary. Leon never came back: Four members of the Palestine Liberation Front hijacked the Achille Lauro, shot him in the head and threw him overboard in his wheelchair.
Starting in October, The Metropolitan Opera in Lincoln Center plans to show a mockery of this brutal murder — the long-dormant “The Death of Klinghoffer.” The title gives away the show’s agenda: Klinghoffer didn’t “die”: This World War II vet was murdered by terrorists.
Starting in October, The Metropolitan Opera in Lincoln Center plans to show a mockery of this brutal murder — the long-dormant “The Death of Klinghoffer.” The title gives away the show’s agenda: Klinghoffer didn’t “die”: This World War II vet was murdered by terrorists.
