ARTISTIC VANDALISM

Bellini’s Norma takes place in 50 BC among Druids in Gaul, which is probably why the Royal Opera House chose to populate it with SS soldiers. The props are made of hundreds of Christian crosses. Characters include choir boys pushing a giant incense burner.

The ugliness of the stage is a proper illustration of the stage director’s own mind. It is all the rage, these days, to “modernise” stage sets and costumes of operas. Cosi fan tutte was recently played in contemporary costumes (well, almost).

What’s the point ? Are spectators too thick to understand what Bellini and Mozart had in mind ?

I could well accept a certain amount of stylisation and streamlining of costumes, but not a deliberate attempt at making them both ridiculous and ugly. Stage directors obviously think of themselves a being so much smarter than the original composers and librettists. They want to “improve” on Bellini and Mozart. Why don’t they also grab brushes and pots of paint, go the Louvres or the Hermitage and “improve” Vermeer’s or Renoir’s paintings ?

The subliminal messages of this cultural vandalism are on at least 3 levels :

1.      1. People in those days were silly. 2. We are so much better than they were. 3. They didn’t know how to convey the universal appeal and message of their works, so here we are, doing it for them.

What sort of sterile, nauseating, mutual-admiration society is now gravitating in the world of arts ?

You want something revolutionary and aggressive ? Fine : create it yourself, but don’t disfigure previous masterpieces. Trouble is : you are quite incapable of actually creating anything, are you not ?