The “W” Word

The "W" Word The Arts 35 Comments

Wait until they find out the composers were white;

English Touring Opera (ETO) has dropped half of its orchestral players in a push for diversity.

At least 14 musicians have been told they will not be booked for the 2022 ETO tour, many of them long-running members of the orchestra.

The ETO has attributed the changes to prioritising “increased diversity in the orchestra,” something that’s in line with “firm guidance of the Arts Council.”

35 Replies to “The “W” Word”

  1. “…. firm guidance of the Arts Council.”
    The proletariat of North Korea has a daily guidance from their dear leader.
    If you look at YouTube broadcasts from the workers paradise, its almost comical.

  2. The Globe and Mail just ratified a last minute agreement with its union. Along with more money, employees also wanted more diversity and gender equality in the newsroom. Apparently there were still a couple of white men working in the newsroom.

  5. How long before orchestras are told that can not play more then a certain percentage of white composers. Good bye Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Wagner, Vivaldi……….. . It appears classical music is done for.

  9. Last time I went to a Blues Club in Chicago … ALL … the musicians were black. Not a single one of them *ahem* … “looked like me”.

    Something HAS to be done to correct this offense!

    1. And think of the white blues guitar players, like Bloomfield, who were accepted into the Chicago scene when they were teenagers. I don’t think that would happen anymore. How dangerous is the south side now?

  10. I’ll bet 100% of those players are talented. Why aren’t untalented musicians represented? Shouldn’t you include some people who’ve never played an instrument before in their life in order to better represent the community?

    1. Imagine training all your life and they hire people who “meet the standards” but don’t quite have it together. And you hear that night after night…

    2. Why aren’t untalented musicians represented?

      Because nobody hired Soapy to sing?

  12. L – Note – Choosing orchestra musicians, on anything less than the competency of each individual musician, is a hate crime against the musical instrument of hearing, namely the eardrum.

    Unlike the screeching of *tyrants screaming, who offend ear, heart and mind is this classic on the power of harmony over discord.

    The Mourning Bride, a poem by William Congreve, 1697:

    Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
    To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.

    *(Lockdowns, Lockdowns, you serfs or I’ll send the Sheriff of Nottingham to violate you!)

  13. As a white person, I will help the ETO tour achieve ‘diversity’ in their audience by not attending.

  17. Ummmm…Opera was created by an Italian white guy. Isn’t the inclusion of any minorities in the presentation of opera a violation of cultural appropriation?

    1. Yup. Claudio Monteverdi is often credited for having developed opera into the art form we’re now familiar with, though it appears there were other musicians who did the same thing.

      One of his earliest works was L’Orfeo, so he’s guilty of cultural appropriation by using a Greek legend as the basis:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjpFi9bn1do

      By the way, as composers often did, he borrowed that theme for the opening of Vespro Della Beata Vergine (Vespers of the Blessed Virgin):

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJIwFO9A1f8

      1. L – You Sir, are a scholar and a gentleman.
        —–Thank you for the link, a fine piece of music and well performed.

        1. It’s my pleasure to share such beauty with other people.

          The excerpt from L’Orfeo was directed by Jordi Savall, a musician who is well-known for his work with medieval and Renaissance music.

          Similarly, John Elliot Gardiner has a reputation for excellence with period music performances.

      2. One of my favourites! L’Orfeo was Montiverdi’s first opera and kind an oratorio. You can feel the liturgical influence. Lots of beautiful choral work along with the main singers. At the other end of Montiverdi’s operatic career is another great work, The Coronation of Poppea. You can see the progression towards the operatic form from his first opera to his last.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oADm9_KUc1I

    2. As for the appearance of minorities, Wolfie himself was guilty of that.

      Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte has a black character. When Papageno, one of the protagonists, encounters Monastatos, a Moor, for the first time, he tells himself that since black birds exist, why not black men?

      Monastatos, being one of the baddies, gets his comeuppance at the end of the opera.

  20. Do they have enough nose flute, didgeridoo, conch shell, and shigshur players to ensure true diversity?

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