Met Stops Blackface Use — Page 6

"Colorblind casting was developed to give more opportunities to minority actors to play roles that are traditionally played by white actors without any story-based necessity. It was NOT developed to give white performers minority roles. It does not apply both ways.""

But this is opera, not theater. It's a whole different animal. It's the voice you cast, not the performer.

That makes sense, and it's what they're doing. But I actually don't see a problem with dark makeup just because it might possibly remind some audience members of a time when horrid, racist caricatures were the norm on stage. But I also don't have a problem with no makeup. I do think opera, and ballet, because of the demands of the art forms, need to have this sort of color-blind casting. I don't think, say, Al Pacino should be playing Shakespeare's Othello, but with Verdi's Otello, you really do need the best singer you can get. It's about the perfection of the art form, rather than any sort of theatrical verisimilitude, and in that sense it's more akin to a concert than a play.

and what does it take for the mods to take action on this board! I PM'd Rob and then he posted a thread later on. Wtf hellooooooooo do something about Liza please!!

"That is correct. There are NO world class tenors from any of the countries you list. Casting Otello on the operatic stage is not the same as casting Othello in a theatrical company. It is written for a rare type of voice, a big, trumpet-like Italian dramatic tenor who also has darker (vocal) coloration in his voice. It is the pinnacle role of Italian opera for tenors, usually not even attempted until a singer is well into his career. I am not saying that there have not been undiscovered PoC who could sing the role, but to date, none of them have presented themselves. Some lighter-voiced African-Americans tenors have told of being coerced into trying to sing the role simply because of their color. This would be a disservice to both them and to the role (think Kelli O'Hara singing Rose in Gypsy). Everybody connected with opera longs for the day when a first-rate tenor of color will finally sing the role, but it has yet to happen. And don't judge too harshly. The opera was written for an Italian tenor, Tamagno, in a time when black singers simply didn't exist on the operatic stage. Yes, it took opera too long to catch up, an spoken theatre too. But, just as black singers absolutely have the right to sing characters who are clearly not black in the story, there is no need to blame white tenors for singing the role of Otello, just as Olivier and Gielgud and Scofield and countless others played the Shakespearean version--it's just that the make-up itself has become an issue in our time. It would have meant banning one of the greatest operas for decades, continuing to the present day. If that's your solution to the problem, so be it."

While that kind of makes sense, I must point out that no one here is blaming the white singers. They're just taking a job, after all.

What did LH do that was an invasion of privacy? The only thing I see is the linking to a Twitter account, which is most assuredly NOT an invasion of privacy.

There is no defense of the use of Blackface. None. It is absolutely racist. If you cannot find a black actor/actress for a role that is written for that particular race, the. Do not produce that show/opera. There is no excuse. None. And anyone who defends it is a racist.

A very popular British variety show back in the 60s was the George Mitchell Black and White Minstrel Show-TV and theatre.

The live show toured twice around Australia and New Zealand and I auditioned and was successful for the 2nd tour-employing me about 2years.

My 'blackface' was actually pancake called Max Factor[American] Negro No2[not black but more like the colour on the man above]-lips and eye surrounds were white with a short black curley wig, white gloves. The girls[Minstrelettes-Yes !-were white].

We were pirates,roaring 20s flappers,venetian romantics,soft shoe top hat and cane dancers and tambourine banging minstrels, interspersed with tivoli type variety acts.

We sold out nearly every performance and even did some early evenings so twice nightly.

Never once did any of us give actual thought to what we were doing,or portraying, in fact what we had to do vocally was create a certain singing style that George Mitchell had structured like 'singing minstrels'.

The Al Jolson medley was always in the show.

We were all happy to be in work and collect our $90.a week.

Times change, the show no longer exists and it belongs to part of entertainment history.

Right or wrong, the show was advertised for what it was--a Minstrel variety show--audiences loved the TV show and wanted to see it 'live'--so they came.

Did we offend anyone, I don't know-there were never any protests, just great publicity wherever we went-and noone knew who we were without our makeup.

My point--thinking changes, progress is made, mistakes are made and hopefully lessons are learnt.

Yesterdays mistakes are best left there, it's what we do tomorrow that counts.

Peace and understanding.

SweetLips

Updated On: 8/8/15 at 01:43 AM

""That makes sense, and it's what they're doing. But I actually don't see a problem with dark makeup just because it might possibly remind some audience members of a time when horrid, racist caricatures were the norm on stage."
If that's the point they intend to make about blackface, sure. But you're giving this hypothetical opera company a lot of credit."

I'm not saying that's the point they're making. I'm saying that's the reason they don't use dark makeup anymore.

And Fosse, calm down. The world is not so (if you'll pardon the expression) black and white as you seem to think it is. Nobody is a racist for wanting to see Otello even if a black performer is not available. Read Sutherland's latest post, he/she addresses the issue very well.

Opera has and always should be cast by musical abilities. Age, size, looks or ( especially since the 60s ) race has not been a major factor. This has allowed a 30 year old African American (Leontyne Price) to sing a 16 year old Geisha, a overweight Italian tenor in 50s (Pavarotti) to sing a starving French man in his early 20s, not the most attractive sopranos to sing Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman. Opera audiences don't care what singers look like if they sound wonderful. Almost all roles are And should be open to any singer if they can sing the part.

Updated On: 8/8/15 at 10:51 PM

how do we know if someone got banned?

^ OK, that exchange made me chuckle.

Man, people really like to show their as*es here when posting about race/racism. Or gender. Or LGBTQ stuff. Or basically anything relating to social issues. This whole thread is ridiculous in so many ways.