Opera expert says Puccini’s Butterfly is ‘racist’ | Uk News | News | Telegraph — Another tale of the politically correct coming out of Great Britain. What is going on over there? I sense this has something to do with the huge number of non-European Muslim radicals living in and around London. They openly threaten the apparently frightened and ever-so skittish locals. But that is just my guess from across the pond.
One of the world’s most popular operas opens in Covent Garden today amid fresh claims of racism, colonial misadventure and outmoded, “sordid” morals.
Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, the tale of an American naval lieutenant who takes and discards a young Japanese wife, has become accustomed to political criticism.
The Royal Opera House has defended Puccini’s Butterfly, saying: ‘It is a product of the time in which it was written’
But yesterday’s attack, from a renowned opera scholar intending to cause mischief, stirred the soul of opera fans across the country.Professor Roger Parker, a teacher of music at King’s College London and a Puccini specialist, suggested that opera audiences could be unwitting participants in racism because of the stereotypes Madama Butterfly contains.
He said: “An authentic production [of the opera] is a racist production. It has a lot of ideas within it that would be seen in any other circumstances as racist. It is not just a question of the words, it also Puccini’s music.”
How can music itself be racist? Any thoughts?
found by Mad Dog Mike
In the same way that Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn has racial overtones Madam Butterfly could be considered racist. The real issues are human: lack of concern for another’s feelings and the notion that one can take advantage of someone’s circumstance because of political power. People should be exposed to great works of art even though that art may not be politically correct by today’s standards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_0eOqZPMmw
Renata Tebaldi – Un Bel Di Vedremo
Don’t be so sure. I too feel that characterising a work like Butterfly as racist is wrong, especially since it clearly presents the US Naval officer Pinkerton as a heartless imperialist. But the musical point is more interesting. Puccini’s score is filled with caracatures of Japanese music which do not share the subtlty of the narrative. One could well see such parodies as racist, were one inclined. Personally, I suspect they simply reflect Puccini’s lack of understanding of real Japanese music or his need to write something that his audience could understand. Probably both. You could say the same for the kind of pseudo-Turkish music that European composers wrote a lot of in the 18th century. Racist in a sense but hardly anything to get concerned about. Better to call it culturally narrow.
another example of music “being” (well, at least labeled) racist would be Wagner, who’s works are often considered anti-semitic
mamma mia! PC gone mad over here in the last few years…. terrified of potentially offending ANYONE
Nothing strange here. In Islam music is ‘Haram’ – forbidden.
7,
That’s the beauty of religion. It’s vague enough that any interpretation is permissible. Some scholars say music is Haram, others say it’s not. Beware any born again, or fundamentalists. Born Again Christian? Run! Fundamentalist Jew? Run! Enraptured Steve Jobsian? Get the hell out of Dodge!
P.C. people are generally soul less assholes.
Blame it on Muslims, in fact, everything is Muslims’ fault, And N*ggers’, and Jews’, and Catholics’, etc. Just like the comments says “non-Europeans”. Of course, Europeans wouldn’t ever have anything to do with savagery and brutality and bigotry, right?
My wife loves Opera. I’m a Fire Fox guy myself, but at least I got her away from MS Explorer.
Now, I don’t what this guy is complaining about. Opera doesn’t use butterflys and I resent my wife being referred to as a Madam. And, furthermore,…
Oh, sorry. Wrong forum.
Of course! Everyone is a racist. Liquid, solid, gas, plasma, the universe… All racist. Everything is racist.
When you look at the world through racist glasses, you will see exactly what you want to see.
Yes I think that maybe a play could be racist, but maybe they are trying to open peoples eyes to the fact of this racism, maybe to make a statement about racism in itself, you can’t start banning art if you interpret it the wrong way, why don’t go burn some books or something…. fascists.
The problem is you can’t please all the people all the time. There will always be those little poorly socialized, stupid, downright moronic people who live by the “if there isn’t enough gum for everyone….” and “you can’t think that” rules. Those snot nosed kids grew up to be PC. It’s the easy-answer group. “Oh, someone is upset, we’d better stop doing it”. They want the world to get smaller and smaller…and hopefully, safer and safer. The overlook that it makes the world a less interesting place to be. The reality is…we should ignore the PCites and let them crawl away, or force them to grow up..
This “per’fesser” needs to toughen up and lighten up.
Everyone is a racist. That’s a fact. We all are raised in a specific cultural group, in a collective tribe with collective viewpoints. We prefer what we are most comfortable with. This preference, and avoidance of things alien is the basis of RACIST. The PROBLEM comes when people start to condemn others and try and force their racist-sect on others. It’s exactly the wrong thing to do.
Sheltering racists is bad, better to expose them to a wider range of experiences..and let them figure out that the human-conditon is bigger than religion and skin color. Let them get to know their fellow man, fellow man’s customs, and art. Make them dare to expand their horizons.
I’ve had it to HERE with all the spinless whining wimps and those who cater and pander to them. I don’t like opera….but, I don’t think censoring opera is going to make these idiots happy. It’s like whack-a-mole, they’ll just find something else to complain about. They’re never happy…..and, nothing wil EVER make them happy.
I’m not really familiar with Puccini’s Butterfly (other than some brief scenes and people referencing it), so I can’t really say one way or the other. However, I could imagine situations where the music is not racist but how the music is used could be. For example imagine if on Lost every time Jin or Sun were on screen they used a sterotypical “Asian” soundtrack that was not based on actual Korean music or whenever Sayid walked into the scene they played a stereotypical “Middle Eastern” sounding song. So the music wouldn’t be racist, but one could argue that the use of such music was racist.
The cool thing about Humanity is our charming touch of diversity. We all have pretty well the same number of appendages, orifices and sense organs, but due to climactic conditions back in the day when our ancestors were knocking around the globe without benefit of air conditioners and the like we all evolved just a wee bit different. And that’s not a bad thing, as our ancestral differences of body hair, eye shape and skin color give us all a base referent of where we came from.
I’m proud of my Scotch/Irish heritage, although I wouldn’t toast anyone or anything on ST Patty’s day (non-drinker) and I sure as hell would not wear a kilt as I don’t wear underwear and I fear a draft (draught?).
Thing to do, if your a bit finicky about your heritage, is strengthen the pride you have in yourself and your ethnicity so that any bigoted attitudes you encounter simply lack the power to offend.
Racism: value judgement – i.e., opinion – regarding characteristics of a particular racial group.
How the flying fuck do you persuade nonverbal sounds to express opinion? Talk about your cognitive dissonance…
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.
~ Frank Zappa
I’m a classist; I hate the rich and attribute most of society’s ills to them. I suppose that revelation is going to ban me from 1st class on airlines, vip lounges at clubs and the really good tables at expensive restaurants. I won’t be hanging with the Jones’ any longer. I’ve eaten my last piece of quiche.