This evening M related to me a story from the opera. It seems that today they had a rehearsal for their outreach program - you know 2000 kids come to the big city on the bus to get their culture on. In this case they are coming to see 30 minutes of the opera "Faust." In between three scenes (from what must be a 7 hour production - ok maybe it only feels that way) they talk to the performers to hear all about the magic of theatre.
At this point I should mention that when I did this as an HPHS student I slept through every act of LaBoheme. I also recall sleeping through a rehearsal for Madama Butterfly while a CMU student. So I wonder about the utility of such excursions.
But not for the same reasons as these students' parents.
The story goes that the director of outreach of the opera got a phone call from a principal about to send 500 of his most malleable minds to see the show. Some parents it seems took the time to look up Faust on the internet and discovered, to their horror, that it is a story about THE DEVIL. Apparently 500 years of western literature having previously eluded this particular demographic they did not know that Faust's interaction with the Devil doesn't work out too well in the end. And of course not knowing that, they related to said outreach director, that they were legitimately concerned that their children would return to them as full fledged Satan worshippers.
Red state opera outreach must be a rough gig.
Anyway, for those of you who like me would rather nap than go to the opera you now have another reason. Beware: SATAN!
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Beware SATAN
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
All youse in arts in ed, all together now: AAAAARRGH! And I thought we had some stories here. This one is awesome.
oh, do tell! in the land of commerical theatre, we don't really care about the ramifications of a DEVIL show on the minds of high schoolers.... unless they are paying us to coordinate the complaints.
Post a Comment