Should politicians go to the opera?
Aug 2, 2013 3:22:56 GMT -5
Post by neilmcgowan on Aug 2, 2013 3:22:56 GMT -5
Martin Kettle - in one of his typically splenetic Guardian pieces - has taxed British politicians for not following the example of their German colleagues, and going to the opera.
Moreoever, he uses Vladimir Lenin (ehem?) as his scourge in this peculiar argument!
Is going to the opera the sign of civilised humanity? And should we expect politicians - of all people - to display such outward signals of alleged civilisation? And since when was Lenin the arbiter on matters of civilisation?
Trotsky, by the way, developed quite a taste for operetta, and became perilously enamoured of a young soubrette, whom he courted with very public assiduity. However, the young lady failed to reciprocate his intentions, so he devoted himself - as any young man would - to the cause of world revolution instead.
As I have mentioned before, the cause of opera was - without any reasonable explanation in the writings of Marx - strongly taken up by the USSR, which set about building opera houses in every existing large city in the country, and even in those new cities it built too. Where else but in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics would the sheepherders of Buryatia have been collectivised into a large new city for their convenience - and then supplied with a brand-new opera and ballet theatre, to fill the time between sheep-shearings?
Moreoever, he uses Vladimir Lenin (ehem?) as his scourge in this peculiar argument!
Is going to the opera the sign of civilised humanity? And should we expect politicians - of all people - to display such outward signals of alleged civilisation? And since when was Lenin the arbiter on matters of civilisation?
Trotsky, by the way, developed quite a taste for operetta, and became perilously enamoured of a young soubrette, whom he courted with very public assiduity. However, the young lady failed to reciprocate his intentions, so he devoted himself - as any young man would - to the cause of world revolution instead.
As I have mentioned before, the cause of opera was - without any reasonable explanation in the writings of Marx - strongly taken up by the USSR, which set about building opera houses in every existing large city in the country, and even in those new cities it built too. Where else but in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics would the sheepherders of Buryatia have been collectivised into a large new city for their convenience - and then supplied with a brand-new opera and ballet theatre, to fill the time between sheep-shearings?
