Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Conductor’s podium now a political platform

Gustavo Dudamel, Dennis Prager, Puccini, Wagner suffer brickbats

I assume I’m not the only one who is experiencing political fatigue. I’m not talking about the shuffling of White House personnel, North Korea, or what have you. I’m referring to all the political posturing within the classical music world this summer.

Video:

Michael Volle, Die Meistersinger

From July 27, 2017 performance in Bayreuth

From July 27, 2017 performance in Bayreuth

Here’s a brief rundown:

Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro canceled the Simon Bolivar youth orchestra tour of the United States due to a verbal spat with Gustavo Dudamel. Dudamel, who came up through Venezuela’s famed youth music education program El Sistema, criticized the violence of Maduro’s regime after an 18-year-old musician was killed. Before that, Dudamel was accused of silent complicity.

Sponsored
Sponsored

In our current hyper-politicized atmosphere Dudamel faced a lose/lose situation. If he remained silent then was perceived as being a Maduro crony. If he spoke out then he put the youth orchestra at risk. Dudamel was not allowed to be just a world class conductor. Apparently, that’s not good enough. He must also construct a political platform to place alongside the conductor’s podium.

Conservative-minded radio host Dennis Prager was protested by members of the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra when he was invited to conduct the orchestra in a fund raiser. Articles in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and on NPR framed Prager as a hatemonger even though he has been a champion of classical music for decades in Los Angeles County.

The event was sold out. Prager wrote a rebuttal.

President Trump has bowed out of the 2017 Kennedy Center Honors after three fifths of the recipients said they would not attend.

Seattle Opera apologized to Japanese Americans for producing Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. In a series of round tables the company put Puccini on trial for cultural appropriation and found him guilty.

Wagner was put on trial in a production of Die Meistersinger at this year’s Bayreuth Festival. Yes, Wagner was criticized within a piece of music he composed at a festival he founded in an opera house he designed and managed to have constructed. Who has that much nerve?

Yes, Puccini and Wagner were politically minded, but they created art which was based on liberation. However, now their creations are considered to be part of the problem. Their art has been deemed repressive by cretins masquerading as intellectuals.

Classical music would do well to end this trend and steer clear of political acts which by their very nature restrict freedom. Oppression is always based on a political system. The arts, when done well, remove oppression for the individual and give access to an enhanced experience of freedom. Yet this summer we have had examples of people within the arts oppressing the arts based on fashionable rhetoric. Fashionable rhetoric they may or may not understand

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Halloween opera style

Faust is the quintessential example
Next Article

Two poems by Marvin Bell

“To Dorothy” and “The Self and the Mulberry”

I assume I’m not the only one who is experiencing political fatigue. I’m not talking about the shuffling of White House personnel, North Korea, or what have you. I’m referring to all the political posturing within the classical music world this summer.

Video:

Michael Volle, Die Meistersinger

From July 27, 2017 performance in Bayreuth

From July 27, 2017 performance in Bayreuth

Here’s a brief rundown:

Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro canceled the Simon Bolivar youth orchestra tour of the United States due to a verbal spat with Gustavo Dudamel. Dudamel, who came up through Venezuela’s famed youth music education program El Sistema, criticized the violence of Maduro’s regime after an 18-year-old musician was killed. Before that, Dudamel was accused of silent complicity.

Sponsored
Sponsored

In our current hyper-politicized atmosphere Dudamel faced a lose/lose situation. If he remained silent then was perceived as being a Maduro crony. If he spoke out then he put the youth orchestra at risk. Dudamel was not allowed to be just a world class conductor. Apparently, that’s not good enough. He must also construct a political platform to place alongside the conductor’s podium.

Conservative-minded radio host Dennis Prager was protested by members of the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra when he was invited to conduct the orchestra in a fund raiser. Articles in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and on NPR framed Prager as a hatemonger even though he has been a champion of classical music for decades in Los Angeles County.

The event was sold out. Prager wrote a rebuttal.

President Trump has bowed out of the 2017 Kennedy Center Honors after three fifths of the recipients said they would not attend.

Seattle Opera apologized to Japanese Americans for producing Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. In a series of round tables the company put Puccini on trial for cultural appropriation and found him guilty.

Wagner was put on trial in a production of Die Meistersinger at this year’s Bayreuth Festival. Yes, Wagner was criticized within a piece of music he composed at a festival he founded in an opera house he designed and managed to have constructed. Who has that much nerve?

Yes, Puccini and Wagner were politically minded, but they created art which was based on liberation. However, now their creations are considered to be part of the problem. Their art has been deemed repressive by cretins masquerading as intellectuals.

Classical music would do well to end this trend and steer clear of political acts which by their very nature restrict freedom. Oppression is always based on a political system. The arts, when done well, remove oppression for the individual and give access to an enhanced experience of freedom. Yet this summer we have had examples of people within the arts oppressing the arts based on fashionable rhetoric. Fashionable rhetoric they may or may not understand

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Dia de los Muertos Celebration, Love Thy Neighbor(Hood): Food & Art Exploration

Events November 2-November 6, 2024
Next Article

WAV College Church reminds kids that time is short

College is a formational time for decisions about belief
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader