Here We Go Again: “tasteless and not legitamate”
Nazi-themed Wagner opera cancelled in Germany after audience treated for shock!
A Nazi-themed production of the Wagner opera Tannhauser, which featured scenes of gas chambers and the execution of a family, has been cancelled after audience members had to receive medical treatment for shock.
The Deutsche Oper am Rhein, a leading German opera house that performs in Düsseldorf, said it could not justify artistic work with such an “extreme impact”.
The opera house said it had asked director Burkhard Kosminski to tone down scenes but he had refused. From Thursday onwards, the opera will be performed solely as a piece of music, without the staging, the opera house said.
At the opening of the Düsseldorf performance, performers could be seen inside glass chambers, falling to the floor as white fog flowed. The performance showed a family having their heads shaved and then being shot.
My question is: when the cast was rehearsing this, didn’t even one think that this was a bit over the top or was everyone just “following orders.”
Kosminski wouldn’t “tone it down” because of artistic reasons; really artistic? Rape, suicide, gas chambers; this is art? Maybe he needs a little history lesson about the 6 million. Maybe he just forgot!
I fault the management of the Deutsche Oper, the music director, the “artistic” director, and the cast for their insensitivity and their incredible stupidity for mounting such an obscene production.
Barry Araújo Kolman 