Just in Time for the Holidays, It's Pointless Sacrilege!

Did you ever see the movie version of Richard III with Ian McKellen? Brilliant! It was a heavily edited script set during WWII in a fascist-sympathizing England. The updated setting worked. The blackshirts provided an interesting context for Richard. More importantly, the update brought out an uncomfortable political truth: that brutality and megalomania are still with us and emerge even in putatively democratic nations. The updating was thoughtful and artistic.

I saw another Richard III at the Globe a few years ago with an all-female cast. It wasn't the least bit gimmicky; it was fantastic. It brought forth how much of the play is about masculinity and the imperative to constantly perform one's masculinity. The all-female cast created a marvellously wry tension that highlighted something important about the play without overwhelming it. It was a suprisingly subtle effect.

Think of Ran, and how the Samurai setting both complemented and reimagined King Lear. Or Throne of Blood with MacBeth. Or Clueless with Emma. Or Cruel Intentions with Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Radically reimagining material can make a powerful artistic statement.

But there has to be something organic and thoughtful about it. Otherwise it just feels arbitrary (I saw a production of Das Rheingold once set in some futuristic wasteland. I still don't know what the point was) or worse, just polemical.

And polemics are fatal to decent art.

Which is why I cringed to hear about the Deutsche Oper's new production of Idomeneo. This opera tells the story of star-crossed lovers and a god who demands a painful sacrifice. It's set in the aftermath of the Trojan War. The Berlin company has chosen to add Buddha, Mohammed, and Jesus to the pantheon of Classical gods and--as I'm sure everyone knows--they are all beheaded.

This takes all the subtlety out of the opera. Rather than suggesting that obedience to religious authority can be dangerous or injurious, Deutsche Oper beats us over the head with THE POINT. It's inflammatory without being thoughtful.

Now, I'm not opposed to a using a classic to comment on current event. And I'm not opposed to a little sacrilegious art. But there has to be some thought behind it. Polemicism is the absolute death of art. There's no tension in polemic, which there has to be in art. Part of the tension that drives Idomeneo, is that the painful sacrifice is actually due to Neptune. Is it pleasant? Is it merciful? No, but it's contractual. That's what makes it interesting--the dramatizing of competing sets of values, each of which have some legitimate claim.

I just don't get what the tension is in this production. It's message-y, not artistic (well, I'm guessing, I haven't seen it).

Plus, Buddha and Mohammed aren't even gods.

I wish I were in Berlin, though.