Opera way too scary for the lil ones

[SteveDallas]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060202/.../faust_video_2

Some thoughts:

• I haven't seen this video, so I don't exactly what they show from the opera of Faust, but the last time I checked, Faust got his just deserts in the end.
• I wonder how many of those innocent kids have seen the Star Wars movies? Yeah, they don't have a devil (unless you count Darth Maul) but there's lots of people being killed with swords there.
• I wonder if I should retain a lawyer for Mrs. Dallas? She has agreed to participate in the "classics in the classroom" program run by the local PTA and will be giving some presentations to the elementary school kids on Beethoven's 9th symphony (sample text: "Be embraced millions! This kiss to all the world!") and Bizet's Carmen (contains scenes of murder, lust, betrayal, and smoking--well, Carmen works in a cigarette factory anyway).

[FallenFairy]

I haven't seen the video - but have seen Faust - as a parent I have to wonder if the television stations in Colorado show the same programming as in Virginia? Children are exposed to more sex, more violence and more immoral acts in one evening of prime-time tv than in Faust in it's entirety.
The world being what it is.... definitely retain that lawyer for your Mrs.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Shocking.

[Tonchi]

I guess that means these parents are removing "The Picture of Dorian Gray" from the reading lists and burning all copies?

[Happy Monkey]

The devil never makes an appearance in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" - Dorian just makes a wish and it comes true with no explanation.

Nah, you guys don't get it. This is COLORADO! Sure, Colorado cable TV serves up the same soup of violence and sex as everywhere else, but everywhere else is not THE headquarters for the Christian fundamentalist movement in the US.

Here's a few snips from a recent article in Harper's Magazine

Colorado Springs is home to the greatest concentration of fundamentalist Christian activist groups in American history. The city is home to Young Life, to the Navigators, to Compassion International; to Every Home for Christ and Global Ethnic Missions (Youth Ablaze). Most prominent among the ministries is Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, whose radio programs (the most extensive in the world, religious or secular), magazines, videos, and books reach more than 200 million people worldwide.

The city’s mightiest megachurch crests silver and blue atop a gentle slope of pale yellow prairie grass on the outskirts of town. Silver and blue, as it happens, are Air Force colors. New Life Church was built far north of town in part so it would be visible from the Air Force Academy. New Life wanted that kind of character in its congregation.

“Church” is insufficient to describe the complex. There is a permanent structure called the Tent, which regularly fills with hundreds or thousands of teens and twentysomethings for New Life’s various youth gatherings. Next to the Tent stands the old sanctuary, a gray box capable of seating 1,500; this juts out into the new sanctuary, capacity 7,500, already too small. At the complex’s western edge is the World Prayer Center, which looks like a great iron wedge driven into the plains. The true architectural wonder of New Life, however, is the pyramid of authority into which it orders its 11,000 members. At the base are 1,300 cell groups, whose leaders answer to section leaders, who answer to zone, who answer to district, who answer to Pastor Ted Haggard, New Life’s founder, who talks to President George W. Bush or his advisers every Monday.

(By the way, this is the outfit that made me go round to the back entrance when I admitted to being Buddhist)

Under Christian dominion, America will no longer be a sinful and fallen nation but one in which the Ten Commandments form the basis of our legal system, Creationism and “Christian values” form the basis of our educational system, and the media and the government proclaim the Good News to one and all.

The battle over "Faust" out on the Colorado plains may seem foolish and insignificant to the rest of you, but it is in reality a deadly preliminary skirmish carried out by the Christian Right in their efforts to realize "Christian dominion" over the rest of us.

[xoxoxoBruce]

After reading Mari’s last post, I went back and reread the linked story.
Population 2400.
SOME parents protested.
TWO parents quoted.
Principal caves.
Is this one of those, squeaky wheels make the papers while the rest of the town scoffs and rolls their eyes thinking it’s bullshit but not worth the effort to make their feelings known. I wonder how many parents approve or couldn’t care less about the program?
A couple years down the road, will the principal be calling the squeaky wheels to check first?........making them the defacto censors.

Well, I went straight to the horse's (or ass's) mouth and checked out the story in the Strausberg Scout which also serves as the local paper for the community of Bennett. Some snips:

It created a kind of firestorm," says George Sauter, the Bennett school district supervisor. "We have people on both sides of the fence. Some are saying it's trying to promote the devil. Other people are defending the arts to the hilt."

Waggoner is disappointed and concerned that the parents did not address her personally so that she could move in a more appropriate or parentally-approved direction.

“I want to interact with the parents and do what is most beneficial for them and the students,” she said. “I was just trying to bring another aspect of culture to the school and that’s all.”

Waggoner added that most parents asking for her job were upset with her for not allowing carols to be sung during Bennett Elementary’s Christmas concert.

“I was not given any protocol as to what the content of the concert has included in the past or what it should be,” Waggoner said. “In today’s politically-correct environment, Christmas carols are considered to be risky because they could offend people that aren’t Christians or don’t observe the holiday.”

Waggoner, a former opera singer hired to teach choral music, has been put on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. Sauter will report his findings at the school board's Feb. 16 meeting. The board could reinstate or dismiss her.

Bennett, a bedroom community about 30 miles east of Denver, has a population of roughly 2,000.

And from the Denver Post:

The debate over the devil has turned Bennett into the latest skirmish in an ongoing cultural war that has included former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's attack on elephant-dung paintings and battles in Vermont and Kansas over "intelligent design."

[BrianR]

NOW I understand why I got so many dirty looks in Denver for wearing my "They're YOUR rules. YOU go rot in Hell!" T-shirt!

Originally Posted by BrianR

NOW I understand why I got so many dirty looks in Denver for wearing my "They're YOUR rules. YOU go rot in Hell!" T-shirt!

I am amazed that you returned from Denver alive! I used to have a bumper sticker on my car which read, "God is coming and SHE'S madder than hell!" I would have strangers try to engage me in theological discussions at stoplights, and people driving past were often heard to yell something that sounded like "WITCH!" or, worse yet, "PAGAN"! I took to yelling back, "FUNDAMENTALIST!"

[WabUfvot5]

LOL. Fundie is shorter and easier to yell I one time walked into the grounds of one of those Mormon churches (the one with the big gold thing I thought would be great to steal on top) with a Metallica shirt (before they sucked) and quickly decided I was not welcome there.

This is probably just gonna spur more devil praising in the future. Stuff like this does not go unnoticed by those who wish to rebel or be in counterculture.

[keryx]

From the article:The video features the soprano Dame Joan Sutherland and three puppet friends discussing Gounod's "Faust." Waggoner thought it would be a good introduction to opera.

Her critics questioned the decision to show children a portrayal of the devil, Mephistopheles, along with a scene showing a man being killed by a sword and a reference to suicide.[end]

While there's nothing wrong with introducing opera to children, I would question using 'Faust' as an example for second and third grade children. I would have even questioned this when I was younger and a LOT more liberal.

With all the operas out there, couldn't material more age appropriate been used? At that age I saw "Hansel and Gretel,' which doesn't necessarily come as a recommendation, just demonstrative of other possibilities.

While not an an opera, my favorite introductory piece has always been 'Peter and the Wolf.' The instrumentation is clever, tells a good story, and there's a happy ending.

Faust does not have a happy ending.

[Happy Monkey]

I don't think "Hansel and Gretel" would be better than "Faust" from the Fundies' POV. It has evil parents, a witch, and as scene with someone being killed by burning. They aren't complaining that "Faust" is thematically complicated, they're saying it is promoting the devil.

Well, Hansel and Gretel promotes a mother leaving her two children out alone in the middle of the woods to die of starvation, cannibalism, and children pushing adults in ovens to be burned and locking the door.

Sounds worthy of big protest demonstration to me!

[fargon]

How about Gilbert & Sullivan, or Rodgers & Hammerstein. Or my personel favorite Bugs Bunny & Elmer Fudd.