No 'R' Rating for the Met's New Rigoletto
Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - 05:47 PM
A Rated R for Rigoletto? Not on the Metropolitan Opera’s watch.
On Feb. 16, the Met will broadcast its new Rigoletto production to movie theaters across the country as part of its Live in HD series. In keeping with its Las Vegas theme, audiences at the Met will see a few scenes with scantily clad dancers (and a topless pole dancer), but movie theater audiences will get something a bit more restrained.
No nudity will be broadcast to the theaters, thanks to a creative use of camera angles.
A Metropolitan Opera spokesman said the screenings are not rated, which means the racy stuff is off-limits. "It's not a Met rule, but since we do not have a rating for our Live in HDs, it would be problematic to show in movie theaters," he said.
In 2008, the Met decided not to show a nude scene involving Karita Mattila in Strauss's Salome, saying at the time that the theater broadcasts are family-friendly events.
As Operavore blogger Fred Plotkin detailed in a post during the heat of summer 2012, nudity in opera can present all kinds of challenges for singers and audiences alike.
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Operavore is WQXR's digital 24/7 audio stream, blog and weekly radio show devoted to Opera. The Operavore blog features breaking news, expert commentary and reviews by writers Fred Plotkin, David Patrick Stearns, Marion Lignana Rosenberg and Amanda Angel. The stream features a continuous, carefully programmed mix of classic and contemporary opera recordings. The show, which launches Jan. 19, 2013, features opera news bulletins from the around the globe, previews of new recordings, and interviews with the players and personalities on the scene.
Comments [6]
I think I finally understood something this week. I understood where our relative values as a society lie.
I learned that the Metropolitan Opera is cutting several scenes from a live broadcast of an opera because the broadcasts were intended to be "family friendly". So the problematic scenes included a scantily clad female dancer (voters in North Carolina will be relieved to hear no nipple or areola was exposed). So the paying public were spared this horrible experience but those in the actual theatre in New York were not.
So let us look carefully at just some of the family friendly events that were broadcast in this opera:
Promiscuity, betrayal, bribery, violence against women, rape, alcohol, drugs, guns, knives, kidnapping, gambling, hate speech, bullying, cruelty, and murder to name a few.
All good wholesome stuff, but thankfully no scantily clad females, so our society and our children remain safe.
Correction: Novalis, "Build upon the old and TRUE before going on to the new." In this context the, "...old and true..." would be that which had been established by the great Opera composers such as Mozart, Verdi,
Wagner, Puccini.
Did they call for nudity in the performance of their works?
In a society called, “The new ugly America,” they say that every socio-economic level and many things considered sacred and beautiful have been systematically degraded. The Metropolitan Opera House, the one institution that by virtue of its highest forms of great Art and Human accomplishment has withstood the corrosive wave of nihilist degradation.
Many have felt comfortable that the tradition of, “The House,” shall remain secure from small minds not content until the Culture built over thousands of years is reduced to barbaric dominance.
“Build upon the old before going on to the new.”
“Keep the mind open so that growth is a constant, though not so open that it is filled with trash.”
Shall the purity of Mozart be corrupted?
Shall decadence stop at the Met?
They ban a little nudity?! This complete insulting caricature of a production should be banned.
Yeah, 'cause Salome is such a family-friendly opera.
I hope the radio broadcast does not have nudity.
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