Opera-goers get a two-cheeked revue in Brazil
Angry
director drops his pants, shows booing crowd the moon
Larry
Rohter, New York Times
Tuesday,
November 11, 2003
©2003 San Francisco
Chronicle | Feedback
URL: sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/11/11/MNGBA2USI81.DTL
Rio De Janeiro -- Those in the opening-night audience at the Teatro Municipal hated director Gerald Thomas' radical reworking of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde," and they were eager to let him know it.
Though the cast members were spared when they came out to take their bows,
the moment Thomas appeared, he was greeted with a fusillade of boos, jeers and insults.
So Thomas responded in a way that many artists who feel misunderstood or unappreciated have undoubtedly dreamed of -- he turned his back, dropped his pants and green drawers and mooned the audience.
Now, Thomas, the eternal enfant terrible of Brazilian theater, is paying the price. Acting on a complaint filed by the local chief of police, prosecutors have charged him with public indecency, and today he is scheduled to appear before a judge who will decide whether there are grounds to proceed with the case.
The indictment has startled artists and civil libertarians here. This is, after all, the notoriously permissive and even licentious city in which thousands of people parade virtually naked on the streets, and over television,
during the annual Carnival celebrations -- with the full approval of the same authorities who have now gone after Thomas.
Then again, the 49-year-old Thomas has been a lightning rod since settling here nearly 20 years ago, bringing with him a passion for the avant- garde.
Thomas acknowledged that his staging of "Tristan und Isolde" was meant to be revisionist and provocative. During the overture a woman sits masturbating on a sofa. Another scene much mocked by critics has Sigmund Freud sniffing cocaine and tossing it into the air like confetti, and the production also features a chorus of Hasidic Jews and a fashion show.
"I'm not a realistic director," Thomas said. "I love mixing things up and doing all this metalinguistic stuff that I do. But I thought that I had created a pretty formal opera with a thoughtful concept. Fashion really does kill passion, especially in a piece like 'Tristan und Isolde.' "
Used to being booed
Thomas added that he was accustomed to being booed and said that in certain circumstances, like a controversial production of Wagner's "Flying Dutchman" that he mounted at the Teatro Municipal in 1987, he even preferred that to applause. What enraged him in this case, he said, were the anti- Semitic remarks that he says he heard from some in the audience.
"From the first three rows I very clearly heard voices saying, 'You filthy little Jew, why don't you go back to the camps?' " he recalled. "That was organized by members of the International Richard Wagner Forum, who had come from Germany and Buenos Aires because they didn't like my staging. I lost it, and the rest is history."
Others associated with the production or in the audience that night said that they did not hear any such slurs. Even within the world of Brazilian culture, Thomas has collected plenty of enemies in a long series of feuds and spats. But a group of prominent actors, musicians, writers, directors and critics have come to his defense with a petition calling on prosecutors to withdraw the charges. They say that Thomas is at most guilty of "an unthinking attitude that is worthy of criticism but not of punishment."
The American composer Philip Glass has also come to Thomas' defense.
"This is totally a free-speech issue, surprising in a country that we love for its openness to all kinds of political and social dialogue," said Glass, who created an opera called "Mattogrosso" with Thomas in 1987. "The act itself was not obscene. What they are objecting to is an artist replying to his critics, and knowing Gerald's work, he would of course choose a theatrical response."
Artist says he was targeted
Thomas said he was being singled out for harassment by the government of Rio de Janeiro state for political reasons. In the newspaper column that he wrote until recently for a daily here, he repeatedly mocked the former governor, Anthony Garotinho, and his wife, Rosinha Matheus, the current governor, and accused them of administrative irregularities.
But Helena Severo, who is both the artistic director of the Teatro Municipal and the state's secretary of culture and had hired Thomas for what turned out to be four sold-out performances in August, denied that there was a vendetta against him.
The prosecutor who filed the charges, Gisela Brandao, said in an interview that she had chosen to forge ahead with the case because Thomas "didn't want the relief to which he was entitled," referring to the option of admitting guilt and paying a fine of about $400.
"The law is the same for all," she maintained when asked whether Thomas was being harassed for political reasons.
But when asked why, if that was the case, prosecutors did not also move against Carnival revelers, she said, "I'm not going to make any comments about the merits of the case" and referred further inquiries to the press spokesman for the prosecutor's office.
Thomas, asked about his rejection of the plea bargain, said: "I do have principles. What kind of example would I be setting for my fellow artists? I don't accept the fact that I committed a crime because I decided to moon the audience in my own theater."
________________________________
Changes to your subscription (unsubs, nomail, digest) can be made by going to http://sandboxmail.net/mailman/listinfo/sndbox_sandboxmail.net
