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Showing posts from July, 2015

Our right to outrage

I am not going to say a word about the William Tell production itself; there, you can relax. I do worry, though, about the world of opera and its direction of travel, or perhaps it is the direction it is being forced to travel? I am not sure yet, although we have given it the odd nudge for sure. Audiences have always - I mean, forever, since Pontius was a Pilate - had opinions, been outraged by art and felt inclined to express that outrage verbally. But now they can express it on Twitter and better still, gather about them a consensus. What we saw in the ROH performance of Tell was Twitter mob mentality in the flesh. We have become used to joining in with choruses of disapproval and we are so much more comfortable with it nowadays. The social media mob mentality emboldens people to try out their outrage where before they might have kept it to themselves for fear that they stood apart. Now they know they can find those of like mind easily by casting a few bon mots into the ether and s