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Goldcorp Opera: Die Fledermaus & Freedom

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Thursday to see Die Fledermaus at the Vancouver Opera House.  This is Johann Strauss’s classic waltz opera of marital infidelity and mistaken identity.  And the prime sponsor is Goldcorp, a Vancouver-based successful mining house.

Disclosure:  Many years ago I did some work for them, but nothing in the past three years.  I do not own shares in the company.  They have sponsored translation of some of my EduMine courses into Spanish.

The Vancouver opera folk do a magnificent job in this production.  The ladies are sprightly and sing at full voice in dulcet tones.  Eisenstein in a good actor although of limited voice volume.  We had seats close to the stage and could hear him, but I pity those near the back of the theater in hearing him if they in fact did.

The staging was fun and colorful–only a few pieces from Home Depot.  The dress sufficient to set my partner aflame on fashion.  The overall effect was perfect: familiar tunes; sung loud; with wit and humour; and enthusiasm.

Goldcorp is to be complimented in continuing to support the Vancouver opera.  I have read criticisms of this support.  The critics say the money could be better spent on education etc. in distant lands.

Obviously distant lands could benefit from more money spent on education.  But ultimately it is their governments that should do this.  If the mining company pays its taxes and royalties, that money should return to the people in the locale of the mine for health and education.  The mining company is not a substitute for good governance and honest distribution of the profits accruing therefrom.

Equally important is support of the arts.  And opera is the top art.  For it involves poetry, music, dance, singing, art of the scenery, stage craft, human cooperation & organization in a noble undertaking, and the flooding of the senses.   I would support Goldcorp and Vancouver opera in taking this opera to those distant lands as part of the education of the locals in all the arts.  And the benefits of a civilized, democratic, equality-oriented society in achieving human life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness through mining-supported arts.  Or as Canadians, the benefits of peace, order and good governance.

For opera can flourish only where there is peace, order, and good government.  Or liberty and a commitment to the individual pursuit of happiness. Thus Goldcorp is supporting these ideals of human perfection in sponsoring the opera.

Let those who disagree first go see an opera. Then let them take the opera to the oppressed in distant lands and let them see what good comes of civil society of free expression. And them encourage them to revolt at the horrors of their society.

I know; for I well recall my first live opera.  It was in Johannesburg at the height of apartheid.  The local theater had been declared  “international” as there was no equivalent for the Blacks or the folk from India and China come to do business.  Recall that in those days, in South Africa, people from India and China were considered non-white and therefore not eligible to go to a White-only place or toilet.

The opera was Verdi’s Macbeth.  There is a chorus in which the Scots sing of English oppression Libera Me.  The Blacks, and then the Indians, and then the Chinese, and then the Whites in the audience stood an lifted their hands and cried Free Me.

The next day the opera was banned and the theater declared White-only.  Yet this was a spike in the absurdity of apartheid.  And ultimately its demise.

Opera has always been a form of protest against the tyrant, the dictator, the upper class and its follies, and the humanity of the lower class and people who are not white.  Too many operas to list prove this point.

So we must applaud Goldcorp in supporting so subversive an art.  And we must encourage them to export this Canadian & Vancouver success to those distant lands where freedom in not a given.  For thus they may improve the human condition.  As much as their mining does and the taxes they pay should.

Grand thoughts, I know, and somewhat greater than what we did after: go drink, smoke, and make love.  The side benefits of opera!



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