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The Radio 3 Boards > The Music Boards > The Opera House > "Jerry Springer Opera" - BBC saved from blasphemy trial
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Author Topic: "Jerry Springer Opera" - BBC saved from blasphemy trial  (Read 309 times)
Reiner Torheit
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« on: 13:30:04, 05-12-2007 »
BBC DG Mark Thompson will not have to face an (alleged) blasphemy trial for screening "Jerry Springer - The Opera" in 2005.

"Christian Voice" had intended to bring a case against Mr Thompson personally, claiming that the show "clearly crossed the blasphemy line".

However, a Court has ruled that impresarios - including both theatre and the small screen - cannot be charged with the (allegedly) blasphemous content of shows they stage or air.

Although I agree SPRINGER was an "opera" only in the very loosest sense (primarily in title only) the ruling is an important one, because there are quite a few genuine operas against whom such a malicious prosecution could be brought.

Full Story as told by the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7128552.stm
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
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time_is_now
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« Reply #1 on: 13:40:30, 05-12-2007 »
'operas against whom', Reiner?!?

Operas have feelings too? Wink
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #2 on: 14:19:57, 05-12-2007 »
I can see my absence from the "glossary" thread will be made good now, tinners Wink

I think I must have meant "operas against whose producers..." ...  I am not sure you could actually sue an opera itself Wink  Although I don't doubt "Christian Voice" would try Wink

It's a moot point, of course...   whom would one sue, for example, in the case of Gounod's FAUST?  If the merely mildly scatalogical SPRINGER got up their noses (I'm surprised "the tap-dancing Ku-Klux-Klan" didn't have more Outraged Of Bedhampsteds writing in...) then what would they make of Mephistopheles deceiving the penitent by impersonating the crucified Christ?  But who would they sue?  Goethe?  Gounod?  Barbier & Carre?  Nerval? The Director?  The Conductor? The Intendant? The Cast? The House Manager? Christopher Marlowe?
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
-  Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
George Garnett
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« Reply #3 on: 16:03:20, 05-12-2007 »
Thanks to the gloriously enjoyable way in which British common law meshes in, or fails to mesh in, with statute law, the High Court ruling still just leaves open the possibility of a prosecution for blasphemy for a theatre production relayed by video link to an outside audience (since neither of the exempting provisions in the Theatres Act 1968 nor in the Broadcasting Act 1990 extend to that particular situation; it's neither one thing nor the other).

So watch out Royal Opera House and your Covent Garden Piazza relays. One false move in a dodgy Magic Flute and you could still be up before the beaks.
« Last Edit: 16:09:38, 05-12-2007 by George Garnett » Logged
ernani
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« Reply #4 on: 16:03:38, 05-12-2007 »
I could imagine the same group having something to say about Verdi's Stiffelio... Wink
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harpy128
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« Reply #5 on: 16:06:09, 05-12-2007 »
Good news, anyway (apart from the video link part).

I suppose trying to dig up and prosecute Gounod et al might have kept them occupied for a while, but in practice it would probably be the producer/production company, just as when there are objections to a picture etc it's the gallery displaying it that generally gets it in the neck (I think - Robert Mapplethorpe etc?).
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Lobby
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« Reply #6 on: 12:40:21, 10-12-2007 »
Reiner,

Its ironic that you cite Faust as an example as, in 2006, a music teacher in Colorado was suspended for showing her students extracts from Faust:

Tresa Waggoner, a first-year teacher, showed her elementary-school class a section of a video that used sock puppets to animate the opera. The 30-year old video in the series "Who's Afraid of Opera" featured Joan Sutherland and was found by the teacher in the school library.

After showing 10 minutes of the video to her students, parents accused Ms. Waggoner of devil worship and, in at least one instance, of not being a Christian, even though Ms. Waggoner describes herself as a Christian and has two Christian recordings among her credentials.

She was also accused of being a lesbian aiming to promote homosexuality. Ms. Wagonner says she was explaining “trouser roles” in opera.  Other parents even complained that the video dealt with abortion. 

As a result, she was suspended from her position.  I'm afraid I don't know if she was re-employed once the furore died down.

You really couldn't make it up.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #7 on: 14:10:07, 10-12-2007 »
Quote from: Lobby on 12:40:21, 10-12-2007

You really couldn't make it up.

Woeful, isn't it?  This wasn't the same people (the late-but-not-lamented Rev Falwell and his clan) who claimed that Tinky-Winky was gay too, was it? Sad

Some people simply don't deserve music teachers, or the arts at all. Sad  I suppose "Duellin' Banjos" is the acme of musical achievement in Colorado Sad
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
-  Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
strinasacchi
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« Reply #8 on: 19:51:08, 10-12-2007 »
Um, the Aspen music festival is in Colorado ...

... but I know what you mean...
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