Calgary Opera Replaces Gabriel Sanchez-Ortega in ‘Tosca’ After Singer Displays Palestinian Flag During Curtain Call
https://operawire.com/calgary-opera-replaces-gabriel-sanchez-ortega-in-tosca-after-singer-displays-palestinian-flag-during-curtain-call/Open linkView original on lemmy.ca
47 replies
So update!
Drove by the theatre to see. Twenty or so protesters out front, lots of Palestine flags. Loud, drums, hard to miss.
Got a text from someone who went at intermission. Apparently, someone started yelling halfway through the first Act about Palestine and the genocide, and evaded security long enough to totally disrupt the show.
That is a really big deal. Do you know how small the opera world is and that it endangers his livelihood that he was willing to do that? That's a person with a conscience.
Imagine if his replacement did the same thing.
Calgary's subreddit has been trying to silence conversation on it.
Reddit is a propaganda machine now. I mean, it was never good, but Jesus it’s bad right now especially with the separatism.
It’s not a coincidence when I go on it’s all Canada visa reform and comments like “you get what you tolerate”
I feel like "you get what you tolerate" is absolutely on point, though. You tolerate Nazis, you get fucking Nazis. If you tolerate LGBTQ, then what do you know, the LGBTQ people feel safe enough to start coming out of the woodwork. When immigrants are tolerated and treated as the valuable population they are, you get more immigrants. The question is, which of those is going to actually pose a problem when they start growing in number? That is the one you shouldn't tolerate. It's a pretty easy rule that gets borne out. Currently, the US tolerates paedophiles, corpocrats, rapists, Nazis and other fascists, and traitors. That's going swimmingly. I hope that Canada can learn the lesson the US has not.
The Israeli bots are hard at it in r/norulescalgary too.
Of course the establishment has their hands on a lot of things.
location based subs are all but taken over by conservatives of those areas.
The real "cancel culture" folks.
Fucking cowards
The establishment strikes again!
Its the wealthy racists/zionists who leverage control over the establishment.
So, I've been going since... 1990. I've got tickets for this Saturday. Not sure what to do. Maybe go, then wait till his replacement goes to bow and just yell "Free Palestine" really loud? Maybe ask for my money back? Cancel my season tickets? Legit torn.
Please go an yell "Free Palestine". I wish I could.
IMO get refund, tell them why.
You'll have to check the refund policy AND the laws. When all the opening acts dropped from Ed Sheeran and people asked for refunds, live nation was initially refusing because they put a BS cover-all refund policy, but the district judge ruled against it and people were able to get their money back.
Trust your gut. There are potential consequences for option #1 there, but I have a lot of respect for it.
Right. Well, I will never attend the Calgary Opera now.
...were you going to previously? I wasnt, but i guess i know to avoid it now
I had no plans to this year, but I am now boycotting for the foreseeable future.
You should email them and tell them as much: [email protected]
Perhaps I will!
First off, I will never attend the Calgary Opera from this moment forward.
Second, Calgary has an opera?
Once a month or so they shovel the cowshit out of the saddledome and tell the rodeo clowns to take a night off.
The last traces of refined culture is under the choke hold of the murderous occupiers.
We are living in a behavioural prison. We are being forced to live with the legitimization of genocide.
Or perhaps those who go see a performance want to see what they paid for and not have yet another experience co-opted by performative activism. Shouting “Free Palestine” does absolutely nothing to free Palestine. Everyone is aware of what’s happening in that part of the world.
Shouting “Free Palestine” won’t free Palestine.
Dousing artwork in oil won’t stop climate change.
Throwing red paint on models at fashion shows won’t convert anyone to veganism.
Actually there are plenty of art communities and organizations that are now boycotting Israel.
So as much as you want to smear your old-man-shakes-fist-at-cloud-go-protest-in-a-way-that-i-approve-and-won't-bug-anyone-cynicism, you can respectfully sit on the side and allow the world to speak out against genocide instead of being yet another obstacle.
Our entire existence has been coopted by our complicity in this genocide.
Reveling in societal apathy, openly condemning valid activism as invalid and using non aligned comparisons, smacks of motivation to uphold the status quo and even a continued societal commitment to violent Zionism.
Ah yes the Palestinian cause is the only global cause of merit. The only genocide. It is the litmus test for all things. Shouting at people wearing a rainbow keffiyeh will free the people in Rafah for sure.
The tactic is similar to what those Jesus freak proselytizers do - everyone has already heard about Jesus and they still haven’t converted and they never will. It’s all for them not for actually converting anyone.
Same with your brand of “ I’m 21 lead my uni’s Marxist club and I’m deep” performative activism.
What a morally bankrupt tirade.
People are tired of nihilistic anti-solidarity attitudes, or ill-framed comparisons based on personal ideologically shaded observations.
Your comments history is overflowing with down votes from your societal peers who hold no symmetry with your personal opinions or your points of expression.
Consider personal introspection in conjunction with the current state of the world.
Ask yourself how meaningful your current attitude or beliefs are to anyone but you.
There's a right and wrong side of history, even for Germans in WW2 Germany.
You're on the wrong side of it.
You don’t need to co-opt every public opportunity to shout to support Palestinians. That does fuck all for them actually. Cosplay activism.
Actively ignoring genocide is a pretty shitty thing to do.
Actively screaming about Palestine at every public gathering won’t change anything about the situation.
Lack of awareness is not a problem.
I WAS thinking of taking my wife to the Calgary opera this year...
You should let the Calgary Opera know and send them an email
i bet these same idiots took a day off for truth and reconciliation as well.
certified Alberta moment
Utter cowardice.
I wanted to lobotomize myself when i went to a thing called the "szegedi szabadtéri" which is a thing we have in the city of szeged every year where they perform a bunch of theater pieces outside on one of the squares of the city and ive been going on and off since i was young but this year they used ai in the background "art". Im not going in protest but it doesnt really matter cause most people who watch it are old enough to not even know what ai is. Im so dissapointed by the "as long as it doesnt effect my share of the pie" attitude. Classical arts has to get itself together...
How can anyone tell whether the owners/managers of a venue are neutral, rooting for Israel, rooting for Gaza, not allowing free speech at all, or allowing free speech only if it complies with their own views? Finding out who allows what is quite a job in itself.
This guy either knew or didn't.
SAD!
Ok, serious question here. Was he fired because Palestine, or because political statement?
Would he have been fired if his flag had been a crossed out US flag? Or a Ukrainian flag?
They say because he disrupted the performance, but we'll never know. I can tell you that crowd... Probably not super receptive.
Emphasis is mine, but it seems it's because of it being about Palestine, because they had no issue with shows that specifically supported Ukraine.
The Opera's other location (Jubilee) had the national ballet of Ukraine, and they have the flag as part of the show
https://www.tmpresale.com/2023/09/25/the-national-ballet-of-ukraine-at-northern-alberta-jubilee-auditorium-in-edmonton-feb-10th-2024-presale-code.html
They also got some supportive articles written: https://calgaryherald.com/entertainment/theatre/art-is-healing-national-ballet-of-ukraine-performs-in-calgary-to-raise-awareness-funds-for-home-country
While I don't think the Calgary opera would find a Ukrainian flag be disruptive to a "connected, caring, and civil society" considering a good portion of the population is of Ukrainian descent; it's definitely tipping the scale towards hypocrisy.