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Verdi, Naked and Anti-American
Austrian Marxist uses opera to slam US capitalism
By Harry Kimball
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Posted Apr 12, 08 6:51 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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A German staging of Verdi’s “A Masked Ball” leaves Uncle Sam wearing little but a mask, Der Spiegel reports. In a rebuke of US capitalism, the production parades naked retirees on a set of the World Trade Center's ruins, and offers a female singer with a Hitler mustache saluting the audience, the Daily Telegraph reports. "One has to introduce new elements" into Verdi's all-too-well-known opera, director Johann Kresnik says.
"The naked stand for people without means, the victims of capitalism, the underclass, who don't have anything any more," he explains. A politician in the eastern city of Erfurt, where the show will be premiered tonight, has called for a boycott, but tickets for the month-long run are nearly sold out.