German staging of naked Verdi opera in WTC runis

[shetuck]

Telegraph (UK): Germans staging of Verdi with naked cast in Mickey Mouse masks (source article is NOT work-safe)

Have the Germans exhausted all ideas for original Holocaust spoofs to the point of having to write rubbish like this? Is this the type of thing that prevailed in European salons before WWII and distracted an entire continent?

Say what you will about our government and what led up to and traspired on and after 9/11 -- because certainly there's still a lot of soul-searching that needs to be done in that regard -- but this type of "artistic" expression is nothing but sensationalistic and entirely innappropriate, imo.

German staging of Verdi's A Masked Ball on 9/11 with naked cast in Mickey Mouse masks

By Harry de Quetteville in Berlin

Last Updated: 3:24pm BST 11/04/2008

A German opera house is to unveil a provocative new production staged in the ruins of New York's World Trade Centre.

It features naked pensioners and Mickey Mouse masks, Hitler salutes and Elvis impersonators.

The self-consciously outrageous September 11th staging of Verdi's 'A Masked Ball' has been dreamed up by Austrian director Johann Kresnik.

He has described the concoction as a populist critique of modern American society, aimed at showing up the disparities between rich and poor, which attracting a large audience.

"It will be a different, a provocative masked ball on the ruins of the World Trade Centre," he told reporters before Saturday's premiere. "The naked stand for people without means, the victims of capitalism, the underclass, who don't have anything anymore."

Rehearsals suggest that Mr Kresnik's anti-capitalist staging is unlikely to be celebrated for its subtlety.

Some of the cast are dressed in soldiers uniforms, or in the red white and blue of Uncle Sam, or in day-glow pink Elvis costumes, slashed to the waist. Many, however, appear to spend their time on stage not wearing anything at all.

They include dozens local pensioners, recruited by the opera house in Erfurt, eastern Germany, to appear naked wearing nothing but plastic Mickey Mouse masks.

"It's a very beautiful, poetic scene," said Guy Montavon, the theatre's general manager.

cont'd...

[Gatorubet]

Originally Posted by shetuck

Telegraph (UK): Germans staging of Verdi with naked cast in Mickey Mouse masks (source article is NOT work-safe)

Have the Germans exhausted all ideas for original Holocaust spoofs to the point of having to write rubbish like this? Is this the type of thing that prevailed in European salons before WWII and distracted an entire continent?

Say what you will about our government and what led up to and traspired on and after 9/11 -- because certainly there's still a lot of soul-searching that needs to be done in that regard -- but this type of "artistic" expression is nothing but sensationalistic and entirely innappropriate, imo.

Spring time for Hitler and Germany. Deuschland is happy and gay....

[shetuck]

Originally Posted by Gatorubet

Spring time for Hitler and Germany. Deuschland is happy and gay....

Is that what they mean when they chant "Deutschland uber alles"... like "uber alles" in a biblical way?