Operas That Offend Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cultural Appropriation

'If you want to know who we are,
We are gentlemen of Japan:
On many a vase and jar -
On many a screen and fan,
We figure in lively paint:
Our attitude's queer and quaint -
You're wrong if you think it ain't
Ooh!'

It is fairly certain that the opening chorus of 'The Mikado' sums up pretty much everything W. S. Gilbert actually knew about Japan. It quickly became one of the most popular comic operas ever. It has also became one of the most controversial.

In the 1990s, amateur and professional productions of 'The Mikado' started to close due to protests. Accused of cultural appropriation, racism and caricaturing Asians, theatre directors decided to do something about it.

Unlike other operas based in Asia, like 'Turandot', 'Madama Butterfly' or 'Lakme', 'The Mikado' is satiric. Although proponents argue that it has a lot more to do with society and politics in England than Japan, it also gives license for white singers with taped up eyes and long robes to ham it up all over the stage. In order to get away from this, some productions are now set in England. A successful English National Opera 'Mikado' of 2015 is set in a hotel at a seaside resort and nobody is Japanese. Other companies have mounted productions with all-Asian casts.

Nevertheless, the protests continue. As Desdemona Chang argues in 'Why The Mikado is Still Problematic: Cultural Appropriation 101', 'The Mikado is not OK, but Hamilton is. Doing The Mikado will do a lot of hurt to the perception of an entire culture of people because in real life, they've been historically denied social agency. Alexander Hamilton, on the other hand, will probably be on the US ten-dollar bill for a long, long time.'

Answer: Blackface

In the 21st century, playing a role in blackface (or yellowface) has become a major issue in opera. Operas like 'Turandot' or 'The Magic Flute' or 'Aida', for example, demand that singers in a traditionally white art form transform themselves into people of a different race.

Unlike most other operas in which people of colour play prominent roles, in 'Otello' the plot hinges on racism. For example, Monostatos in 'The Magic Flute', who complains that he can't get a girl because he's black and that's ugly, has been a problem for a while. But in a 2014 version in English mounted by the Washington Opera, the offending lines in the aria were altered and the problem was solved. But a solution like that wouldn't work in 'Otello'. Some argue that playing the role without dark skin takes an essential element from the opera. Kaufmann and other white singers playing the role without darkening their skin have received very mixed reviews.

For an interesting look at what singers think, try 'Talking Race and "Blackface" in Opera: The Long Version' (Anne Migette, 2015) and 'I am Singing About Myself: Conversations with Black Othellos' (Alison Kinney, 2016)

Answer: Smoking

In 'Carmen', Carmen works in a cigarette factory and women are smoking. As Carolyn Chard, general manager, explains, 'We care about the health and well being of our staff, stage performers and all the opera lovers throughout WA, which means promoting health messages...'

Although certainly well-meant, this was not a popular decision. Even the Australian Prime Minister called it 'crazy'. Many people pointed to the A$400,000 grant the company had recently received from Healthways, a government agency promoting public health, as the reason for the move.

And as far as I can tell at the time of writing this quiz, the bullfight doesn't seem to have offended anybody...yet.

Answer: Antisemitism

Everybody knows that Wagner was firmly on Team Aryan and was extremely antisemitic. The Rheinoper decided to really stick it to the old man on the bicentenary of his birth by staging a production of 'Tannhauser' in a Nazi death camp. Clouds of 'gas' wafted across the stage, a family was shorn and shot, and Tannhauser writhed on the floor with Venus, an SS officer. Theatre director Burkhardt Kosminski told EuroNews that '...in an opera you have to create concrete situations and if it is only romantic trash, it has no relevance.'

The opening night audience reacted with shouts, boos, banging doors and some got literally sick. The production was pulled and further performances were done in concert version. As for the critics, 'tasteless' was about the nicest thing that was written.

People have been rethinking Wagner's works ever since his grandson Wieland started designing the stark, stripped down productions that marked the postwar era at Bayreuth. Barry Kosky's 2018 'Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg' was set in the composer's home and featured a Beckmesser sporting a mask that looked like a Nazi caricature of a Jew. Kosky's point was that he wanted to put into the character everything that Wagner hated. And Wagner hated a lot of things. You have to decide for yourself whether you want to attend, just listen or avoid Wagner entirely.

Answer: Blasphemy

Opera has always been antsy about presenting an onstage Christ. It was fine for Handel to write operas about Greek and Roman mythological gods, but for Christianity he had to move to the oratorio. Government censors persuaded Wagner that 'Parsifal' was a better choice of subject than Jesus Christ.

In the 1970s, musicals like 'Godspell, 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat' and 'Jesus Christ Superstar' appeared but it was only in 2013 that a full opera, Mark Adamo's 'The Gospel of Mary Magdalene' was produced onstage by the San Francisco Opera. Jesus was called 'Yeshua' in this work and there were very few protests, but that was probably because the opera bombed.

Yet 'Jesus Christ Superstar', produced regularly since the 1970s, continues to offend. In 2016 a performance in Omsk was picketed by a Russian Orthodox group and their online petition received over 2500 signatures. The 2003 national tour was greeted by crowds of protesters passing out leaflets at almost every stop. As late as 2019 a performance in Newry, Northern Ireland was picked by candle holding protesters singing psalms.

It might offend some, but the Vatican gave it the thumbs up in 2000 and some Christian groups use it as a teaching aid. The jury is still out on 'Jesus Christ Superstar'.

Answer: Graphic sex and violence

Ever since Maria Ewing dropped that last veil in 'Salome' at the Met in 1991, opera has been pushing the envelope in what can be shown onstage. Over-the-top productions that feature nudity, rape, graphic violence and some things I can't mention on a family quiz site include Covent Garden's 2015 'William Tell' 'the English National Opera's 2000 'Mazeppa', Seattle Opera's 2015 'Cosi fan Tutti' and the Komische Oper Berlin's 2004 'Die Entführung aus dem Serail'.

Should operatic productions get ratings like movies do? It's a point worth debating. Over 40 forewarned ticketholders returned their 'Lucia' tickets and there were boos and walkouts during the performance. In the future, maybe 'R' and 'PG' ratings for opera will become the norm.

Answer: Carmen shoots Don Jose

'At a time when our society is having to confront the murder of women, how can we dare to applaud the killing of a woman?'asked Cristiano Chiarot, head of the Maggio Musicale. He had a point. From 2012 to 2016 there were over 600 women killed in Italy and 88% of them by their partners. The production was very well received; it sold out, promoted seminars on violence against women, and even politicians weighed in. One senator stated that the opera became 'the voice and strength of all these women who claim respect for the dignity and inviolability of the human person'.

There were, of course, those who saw it differently. Neil Garrett wrote 'When women become powerful as men are powerful it only reinforces and legitimizes the problem of masculine violence. It reduces to the absurd position that if only women were more violent then everything would be better.' ('Carmen as Revenge Fantasy' 2017). Many accused the company of sensationalism to boost box office. It didn't help that during the second performance the pistol jammed and didn't go off.

Whether you believe that this production was a bold pro-woman stand or a cynical publicity bid, there is a question that still remains. If you object to applauding violence against women, why do you go to the opera at all?

Answer: Homophobia

It's quite a dilemma when your country's most famous composer was a homosexual and in 2014 you've passed an anti-gay law. Vladimir Putin got round that by stating ' we don't love him because of [his homosexuality], but he was a great musician, and we all love his music. So what?'

There's no homosexuality in 'Eugene Onegin', although Marten Weber, in 'Help Eugene Out of the Closet' (2016) argues that the story is really about Eugene and Lensky. What LGBT protesters were upset about was the staging of an opera by a gay composer from an officially anti-gay country that featured two staunch supporters of Putin, soprano Anna Netrebko and conductor Valery Gergiev.

Both Netrebko and Gergiev argued that their support of Putin had to do with the Ukraine and not homosexuality. Anna explained on her website that she 'has never discriminated against anyone for homosexuality or any other reason' Yet it seems that this is not the last time these artists will be censured for their politics.

Answer: Terrorism

John Adams' opera 'The Death of Klinghoffer' tells of the PLO hijacking of the cruise ship MS Achille Lauro in 1985. A terrorist murdered one passenger, the disabled senior, Leon Klinghoffer.

The opera premiered in Europe 1991 and from the beginning there was trouble. Glyndebourne and Los Angeles cancelled dates. There were demonstrations at smaller houses that mounted the work. But this was nothing compared to the scene in New York City. Among the hundreds of demonstrators were local politicians, wheelchair veterans, religious groups and a lot of people waving placards. Mayor Giuliani, an opera fan and probably one of the few who had actually heard the recording, said that although Adams was one of America's greatest composers, he agreed that the opera was antisemitic and 'supported terrorism'. Inside it was worse. Boos, screams and cries of 'Murder!' and 'Shame!' continued throughout the performance.

The Met cancelled all future performances and struck 'Klinghoffer' from their HD roster that year, promoting a bitter backlash against the backlash. Online protests against censorship abounded.

In the aftermath, John Adams went on to write concertos and the librettist, Alice Goodman, couldn't get work. 'Long Wake, The Death of Klinghoffer at the Met' (Alex Ross, 2014) explores the controversy.

Answer: Body shaming

Traditionally, opera singers tended to be heavy. There were a lot of reasons given for this, among them being that it was believed that voices gained depth and resonance from the rolls of fat around the throat and diaphragms were larger and stronger, able to support greater volume and breath control. But things started to change. Before the last years of the 20th century, most people heard opera on radio or vinyl, but it was making its way onto the small and big screens. People expected to see singers who looked the part, or women singers anyway. Nobody ever fired Luciano Pavarotti for his weight.

Voigt had a gastric bypass and slimmed down, describing her voice as now 'more silver than gold', but the body shaming continues. When Anna Netrebko put on weight after she'd had her son, the critics shrieked. In 2014, when Glyndebourne cast extremely beautiful Tara Erraught as Octavian, eminent critics with a lot of personal issues called her variously 'plump', 'roly poly', 'fat', 'unsightly', 'chubby', unappealing', 'stocky' and as having an 'intractable physique'. Only a couple of them got round to mentioning her wonderful voice. As in the case of Voigt, the backlash was tremendous. Singers and the general public weighed in, excoriating the blatant unfairness.

In opera, is it the look or the sound that is important? As long as the debate continues, opera will continue to offend.