I was disappointed to see that Opera North has asked Lee Hall (who wrote the screenplay for Billy Elliott) to change the libretto for an opera he has been working on for them. The opera has been a large-scale community project involving a lot of school children in Yorkshire. The change which opera North wants relates to the language used by a gay male character in one scene. That character says "I'm queer" and "I prefer a lad to a lass" in conversation with another adult character in the opera. Apparently one of the schools involved threatened to pull out unless the language was changed and Opera North have not supported Mr Hall's refusal to do this (he has made some changes elsewhere at its behest).
I say I am disappointed that Opera North has made this request - but I am not remotely surprised. PR seems to me more important than artistic integrity these days. Upsetting people by challenging them is too risky. Even the slightest hint of homosexuality on a stage where children perform is too much to bear. Never mind the kids performing who have parents in same sex relationships. Never mind the fact that silencing homosexuality through repressing its expression has been the cause of depression and suicide among teenage children, nor that the implict affirmation through such silencing that it is wrong legitimates homophobic violence; it's safer to be safe. Heaven forfend that children's sensibilities should be offended, and it would be terrible - wouldn't it - for - for an opera company to represent this on stage:
"During the prelude, we witness a woman being delivered of a stillborn baby by three Mrs Mop-esque witches, who unceremoniously dump the body in the bin."
Where's that from? Oh yes, Opera North's 2008 production of Verdi's Macbeth.
It's OK to represent dead children as garbage, but not to have them on stage with an actor playing a gay man. Homophobia is disgusting. Hypocrisy is almost worse.
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