Sunday 21 December 2008

opera is harmful

BBC's Christmas Day Hansel and Gretel will show 'dead children' (Telegraph 12 Dec 2008)

(Found via Melonfarmers.)

Children's campaigners have criticised the BBC's decision to broadcast it at a time when young children will be watching. [...]

This is the most violent stuff young children will ever see on TV! And the blasted thing is sung in some weird language that normal people don't understand!

The Torygraph and self-proclaimed 'children's campaigners' would do anything to protect children from foreign culture. Right, let's stick our heads in the sand and pretend that if British children grow up to be violent or otherwise dysfunctional, it is because they once saw a non-Anglo-Saxon opera with puppets of dead people in it. It can't have anything to do with our educational system, the many violent cartoons on TV, our crypto-fascist government, or anything like that, can it? So, blame it on zee Germans!

In this age of cultural barbarism and instant gratification, the 0.001% of British children who can be bothered to watch any opera for more than 5 minutes may be expected to have the intelligence to cope with the discussed scenes.

On a happier note, I can highly recommend Humperdinck's delightful opera, for children and adults of all ages. If you miss the broadcast, or if it is cancelled thanks to xenophobic, self-important bigots, there is a wonderful recording on CD with Anna Moffo, Helen Donath, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Kurt Eichhorn conducting.

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