Dear Peggy and List:
--- In vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com, "Margaret L. Harrison"
<peggyh@i...> wrote:
> thesinatraguy@a..., responding to my message, wrote:
> > (Personally, I have a problem with the theme and would decline to
participate - not that I'd expect anyone else to do the same. Why
should an institution of learning be glorifying prostitutes, as if
using a eupemism made it any less degrading?)
Peggy, this is a rare time when I think I perhaps disagree with you.
As I understand it, a high school is putting on a cabaret show that
is something of a musical revue, taking selections from well-known
broadway shows and operettas or operas - it is not like the students
are composing something new. Do I think that a "Ladies of the Night"
theme is the best one? No I don't - but I don't think it's so
terrible as you seem to find it.
Would you object to a performance of "Porgy and Bess" since Bess is a
prostitute? How about "South Pacific" - is the young daughter that
spends the night with the sailor a prostitute? And "Cio-Cio San" in
Madame Butterfly - what is she? And on and on...
I do not believe that having a character in a musical or opera be a
prostitute is a glorification of what is certainly a degrading way of
life. I think that instead a prostitute character is sometimes an
opportunity for the composer to comment on the desperation of the
prostitute and the desire to not be one...
Perhaps when my six year old is in high school my point of view will
change! ;)
For what it's worth...
Michael Gordon
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