Open Thread October 30, 2022

Yesterday, the radio opera was Aida, by Verdi, from the Los Angeles Opera. Several years ago, the Met broadcast Aida one Saturday with Violeta Urmana (who is absolutely competent, but not, IMO, terribly exciting.) Peter Gelb announced from the stage that Ms. Urmana was unwell and the role would be sung by Latonia Moore (of whom I hd never heard, and that was probably true for most of the audience.) Before the first act was over, I was on Google looking her up – I was that impressed. I knew she would, before too long, be a star in her own right, not a backup. In this broadast, she was the star, singing Aida as an established diva in her own right. I’m not always right in my predictions – but boy, was I right about this. The opera is so well known I don’t think I have to say much about it. It’s set in ancient Egypt because it was commissioned for and premiered for the openong of the Suez Canal. It doesn’t exactly make the Egyptians look like the good guys – but that’s also true of the Ethiopians – the only really good guys are Aida herself and Radames, both of whom are torn by conflicting loyalties. Amneris is pretty sneaky – but she is torn also. The opera is famous for the Triumphal March and for all the animals on stage (sometimes including elephants.) With these broadcasts, one can go on line and see some still photos from the production – sometimes just one or two, sometimes more. This one had 20. But if you were to look at them, if you tried to figure out the relarionships from what they looked like, you’d be fooled. The casting is the most color-blind I think I have ever seen. It warms my heart.

Cartoon –

 

Short Takes –

International Campaign for Tibet – Chinese woman’s racist WeChat post calls for Tibetans in Lhasa to be “wiped out”
Quote – Tibet is one of the clearest cases of institutional racism in the world today. Chinese authorities have spread racist narratives about Tibetans. A Chinese state media report on Tibet in 2008 asserted that prior to its “liberation” (meaning Tibet’s conquest by Chinese armies), “Tibet remained a society of feudal serfdom under a theocracy, one even darker and more backward than medieval Europe.” A Chinese state media report also claimed in 2021 that Chinese rule has taken Tibet “from a society under feudal serfdom to socialism, from poverty and backwardness to civility and progress.”
Click through for article. Nothing is ever black and white – and that includes racidm, or tribalism. It must once have had some survivak vakue, since it’s apparently hard wired – at least in some of us. If only there were an easy answer.

Wonkette – We Wish We Were Half As Fierce As This Tennessee Mom Throwing Out The Homophobic Christian Trash
Quote – Those [six examples given] are just the local news stories our pal JoeMyGod has aggregated about (white heterosexual) conservative Christian leaders abusing children in the past week. It’s kind of a thing he does, aggregaing those stories. And the numbers are staggering. And [censored] MAGA trash wants to lead a Nazi-style campaign against drag queens and trans kids and public school teachers who tell those kids it’s OK and that they’re not going to hell for who they are? Want to call drag queens and loving teachers “groomers”? Go eat a sidewalk.
Click through for story and video. I put this here because it so perfectly expresses what I feel (and you probably do also) about Christofascism and those who peddle it. And it has CC. If you cannot see Twitter videos, cuts from it are on YouTube here and here, but not the complete version.

Food For Thought