Academia, Bizarre, Free Speech, International

University of Bristol Cancels Performance of Aida After Protests That Verdi Was A Cultural Appropriator

270px-aida_poster_colors_fixedIt appears that the movement against “micro aggressions” and “cultural appropriation” has now targeted opera. In an act of artistic cowardice, the theater at the University of Bristol has cancelled the performance of Aida after students declared that the entire production was a cultural appropriation. It turns out that Giuseppe Verdi was culturally (and operatically) appropriating in 1871 and continues to do so with every performance of this classic opera.

The depiction of ancient Egyptians in costume was apparently enough. However, most of us would have expected the Music Theatre Bristol (MTB) to issue an instructive statement about respect of classic works and artistic expression. Instead it caved to the mob and silenced the performers and artists. The theater explained that “This show that was voted in by our members has since caused controversy in terms of racial diversity. It is a great shame that we have had to cancel this show as, of course, we would not want to cause offence in any way, and that was certainly never our intention. Our intention was to tell this story, one which surely is better heard than not performed at all.”

I have written columns and blogs through the years about the disturbing trend on U.S. campuses toward free speech regulation and controls. In the name of diversities and tolerance, college administrators and professors are enforcing greater and greater controls on speech –declaring certain views or terms to be forms of racism or more commonly “microaggressions.” Now protesters are seeking to declare classics as microaggressions and a university has again folded in the face of the mob.

We have seen students rise in protest over what they believe is “cultural appropriation” in schools offering yoga or students wearing dreadlocks or serving Mexican food. Recently students at Oberlin even fought to stop the school from offering students sushi as “cultural appropriation.”  We have even seen the mispronouncing of names deemed microaggressions. We are losing the important lesson that in a pluralistic society you need to be prepared to hear opposing views and overcome slights that come your way. Ideally you develop an appreciation that some insults are not intended and to develop a thicker skin in dealing with people from different cultures or perspectives. Instead, we seem to be plunging our educational institutions into the dangerous waters of speech regulation and sanctions.

80 thoughts on “University of Bristol Cancels Performance of Aida After Protests That Verdi Was A Cultural Appropriator”

  1. So much for the opera I was writing based on the Easter Island inhabitants. Rats. Guess I’ll have to do one on the snowmen of Antarctica.

    1. For your libretto, you might want to check out a book called The Golden Octupus: Legends of the South Seas. There is one available at Amazon, and the last time I checked, there were multiple copies. My Dad had a copy, but I had to break down and buy my own. It is very unique because the pictures are glued in.

      Squeeky Fromm
      Girl Reporter

  2. It just gets stupider and stupider. It’s as if there was a contest between blithering idiots in the US universities and fringe areas who were trying to outdo each other by coming up with the most ridiculous ‘micro-agression’ and the disease somehow spread abroad and they were trumped by an upstart. Even Orwell couldn’t create a scenario this bizarre. However, it could be a performance piece by fine arts students. If it turned out to be a performance piece it would merit reproducing in various forms. I wonder when the first performance piece will be presented here in the US, if in fact it hasn’t already been done or is being done. The problem is how do you parody something that has already stretched the limits. Even Saturday Night Live can’t beat the nut cases out there. Here’s hoping Trump is, in reality, a performance piece.

    1. If you insist on bringing Presidential politics into this, just whose supporters do you think abide this PC insanity and whose supporters loathe it? Wake up, Canada. And speaking of Canada, those drunken Blue Jay fans throwing beer cans @ outfielders was reprehensible. We need to take the lone team in Canada back and give it to a worthy US city.

      1. “If you insist on bringing Presidential politics into this, just whose supporters do you think abide this PC insanity and whose supporters loathe it?”

        Nick,
        I believe you already answered that question in your 12:20am post.

      2. PC insanity, baseball, beer cans, build a wall on the northern border, Trudeau bashing; this must be a performance piece. Like all art, some of it is good and some of it, not so good. But it is all art, the eye of the beholder, etc. I like the way the theme is continued, regardless of how successful. Remember, it’s only art if you believe it’s art. When it can’t be anything else, it must be art.

        1. Poutine Eater, You are correct. We free thinkers do have many thoughts and a sense of humor. I hope the Rangers pimp slap those cocky Blue Jays.

          1. You sum it all up in your ‘team’ bashing. Canadian hockey teams suck because they’re in Canada. A Canadian baseball team sucks because it is in Canada. Thick as a brick, don’t you understand that 50% of NHL players are Canadian and almost all if not all Blue Jays are Americans. I think I’ll just sit back and let you destroy yourself. It is amusing, even at your worst.

  3. In the very near future your thoughts will not be your own. Like we have cameras on street corners there will be devices that read minds of those passing by. In the guise of ‘Public Safety’ of course. After all, ‘wont you think of the children’

    It has nothing to do with safety. At least not yours.

    This technology is not conspiracy theory. It is fact.

    The more I learn about developing technology and the Globalists, the more I I stop laughing at the people living in the mountains with guns and food stored

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3423290/Mind-reading-computer-INSTANTLY-knows-thinking-about.html

    http://motherboard.vice.com/read/this-device-reads-your-mind-and-types-your-thoughts

  6. Why stop at opera. Ban music all together… and political speech too.
    Rich white c*s*ckers have no business discussing the needs of the many.

    Ofcourse one couldn’t expect a uni to display a little system thinking… Arbitrary rules the world.

  7. So the next time a Puerto Rican or a Latino guy plays Alexander Hamilton and a black guy plays Arron Burr we should all boycott that show… Cultural appropriation! Talk about insanity.

    All thinking individuals should boycott the University of Bristol! Insanity.

  8. The opera fanatic that I am, after laughing at the abject ignorance of the individuals involved, it had dawned on me that the real problem is the University of Bristol is completely incapable of mounting a performance of Aida. It is not an easy opera to stage, even improperly, with or without the elephants. Blame it on cultural appropriation, what ever that is, is just another way of saving face. Everyone gets a break. No harm, no foul, and the music department lives to sing another day. Or – so they thought. Why on earth would any university be arrogant enough to think they could stage Aida? Rigoletto, Traviata, Trovatore, or even Un Ballo, but Aida is why they call opera “grand”.

    1. Apparently it was not the full opera, but a musical based on Aida. The musical was written by Tim Rice and Elton John.

      1. Prairie Rose – so it was a cultural appropriation of a cultural appropriation. Double horrors!!!

  9. The idiots who canceled the performance of Joe Green’s fabulous opera Aida need some serious punishment to motivate them to change their ways,. Forcing them to sit through Wagner’s entire Ring Cycle without leaving their seats should do the trick.

  10. Censoring Verdi??? Are you freaking kidding me?? Claiming cultural appropriation because a college cafeteria insults the Japenese by making bad sushi is one (ridiculous) thing. But this?? Blasphemy!!!

    2. Opera, This is just one of countless examples. Shakespeare is censored in many colleges because he is sexist. There is a purge going on akin to Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

      1. Squeek, Your youth is showing. You’re missing The Bristol Stomp. “The kids in Bristol are sharp as a pistol when they do the Bristol Stomp.” A hit back in the 60’s, It was played @ every high school dance in Bristol.

  13. Wait! This isn’t Bristol, CT. These were all anti-Brexit voters. Same ilk.

    1. And just how do you know they were all anti-Brexit voters? Something isn’t true just because you believe it to be nor because you claim it to be. Where’s the evidence?

  17. Seriously how far away are they from waving a small red book and addressing each of their classmates as “Comrade”?

  18. I will be really happy when these free speech haters have become adults and society has progressed through this whole bunch of BS. I am disgusted. And if you don’t like it, TS

  19. Isn’t ESPN The University of Bristol? I drove through ESPN a couple weeks ago as that is my hometown. They now have a north campus as well as the main campus. Didn’t know they did opera.

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