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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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In Reply to: Really? A "Facist" opera popular in communist Russia? posted by Rick W on July 14, 2015 at 16:49:54:
Yes, I was serious.
The source was an article in IIRC The Atlantic some time between 1979 and 1982--unfortunately, I am sure I de-cluttered that issue years ago, and The Atlantic's online coverage starts in 1995.
I meant fascist in terms of the fasces, which is symbolic of all the elements of society being basically uniform like rods in a bundle, and all acting as one.
Perhaps a better characterization would have been that "Billy Budd" was popular with the Soviet cultural establishment as an example of what a work of art should be.
Billy Budd is innocent and idealistic, but he has a stammer (often times wrongly interpreted as a sign of low intelligence) and not being able to defend himself verbally, he lashes out at an AUTHORITY FIGURE and kills him.
So, Lesson No. 1 from "Billy Budd" is that even if you are in the right and the authority figure is in the wrong, YOU MUST DIE. The Soviets in effect said, "That works for us."
But it gets even better.
Upon learning that the crew is willing to mutiny to save his life, Budd declines. This sends the message that the proper duty of a citizen is to preserve the established social order, even if it means that the citizen will be wrongfully executed.
I don't have the libretto handy, but, before he is hanged, does not Budd in effect say "Thanks, I needed that," in response to a pep talk? Again, the duty of someone who cares for a wrongly convicted citizen is to make him feel better about being executed, because it preserves the established social order.
At the end, Budd sings a benediction on the Captain who could have saved him but who stayed remote... I think that when you connect all the dots, the Soviet cultural establishment thought that "Budd" was one of the few worthwhile Western musical works post-WWII, for the wrong reasons, but for understandable reasons. Killing innocent beauty in the name of preserving the forms of authority was all in a day's work for the Soviet system.
Whereas my crystal ball tells me that Britten and Forster were drawn to the story because its failures of legal due process and basic human decency resonated with British gays who had lived through WWII. And Budd's stammer mirrors "the love that dare not speak its name."
FWIW & YMMV, obviously.
But I find Budd's blessing of Vere (read: Truth?) to induce profound moral queasiness. And of course one must remember that to a great extent, Forster and Britten were bound by Melville's text, and Melville was a very twisted dude.
JM
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Follow Ups
- Fascist in the sense of the origin of the word--the fasces symbol--not Mussolini - John Marks 08:21:19 07/15/15 (5)
- RE: Fascist in the sense . . . Steady on, there, JM - goldenthal 21:56:34 07/31/15 (0)
- Frankly, John, in view of Rick's post above. . . - Chris from Lafayette 09:33:32 07/15/15 (3)
- Let's put that on hold--but BB is still a fascist work of art, whether novella or opera--Right or Wrong? - John Marks 09:55:32 07/15/15 (2)
- RE: Let's put that on hold--Wrong, Wrong, Wrong . . . - goldenthal 22:13:12 07/31/15 (0)
- RE: BB is still a fascist work of art? - genungo 11:45:10 07/15/15 (0)
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