Polanski achieved it in his filmed Macbeth several times, starting with making the Macbeths so young and attractive.

Erik Bruhn achieved that with Giselle when he double-cast Bathilde and Myrtha. Staging can be an opportunity to dig deeper into the music - and, yes, the libretto - to bring a new shape to a production, something that makes an audience nod and think, hmmm…never thought of that before. Casting should have no other consideration. The primary cultural sensitivity of any opera is musical. Is the ROH being lobbied by intelligent, credible, serious people who have a documented point to make? Or are they, or more likely their funding masters, being intimidated by the Twitterati, and small committees of insignificant numbers of noisy, and noisome, agitators who are creating problems where none exist?Īre they convening town halls among various communities to canvass their opinions, coupled with questionnaires as to whether, if Turandot were played in natural make-up, and Ping, Pang and Pong renamed Tom, Dick and Harry, the Chinese community would gladly fork out the several hundred pounds it costs for a good seat and become opera subscribers? What will be the criteria? They would only need to step into an English lit class at any university to find that for practically every situation, character, setting or even word in some timeless classic there is someone whose cultural sensitivity would be “harmed.” These people do not get to themes, or moral greatness - they are too busy searching for nits by which they can disrupt the whole enterprise.

Is the ROH forming a Committee of Taste (and you should read Clive Bell on THAT notion) to go through every opera in the rep, past, present and future, with box-ticking forms?

The very question that occurred to me as I read the post.

Mary allen royal opera house