Opera must set a better example for our teens

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If our young people see the heroes of their favourite operas sucking on the cancer sticks, they will naturally think it's good for them to do too. Thank goodness we have West Australia Opera, who know it's better to be safe than entertained, writes Ben Pobjie.

Well, all I can say is, bravo.

Bravo to the West Australia Opera for taking a stand against the creeping tide of moral turpitude that threatens to capsize our social dinghy.

Bravo to an arts organisation with the guts to draw a line in the sand and say "get off our beach" to the insidious crabs of moral corruption scuttling towards the shower block of civilisation.

I speak, of course, of the WA Opera's brave decision to cut Carmen from its program in the next two years after securing sponsorship from Healthway, due to the opera's depiction of smoking.

I'm not saying this decision will automatically reverse all the damage Carmen has done over the years - Bizet wrote it in 1875, so there's a lot of societal destruction to rectify - but it's a damn good start.

The titular heroine of Carmen, of course, works in a cigarette factory, and frankly it astounds me that it took WA Opera's courage to block the production of such a viciously anti-social plot. What kind of message does it send to our youngsters, having a bunch of nicotine-jockeys belting out some fun tunes up on stage, irrevocably linking the idea of smoking to the idea of cool singing.

Any parent knows how impressionable kids are these days - they are forever running down to the opera house to catch the latest production, and taking their moral and ethical cues from the performers on stage.

Children crave belonging and social cachet - if they see the heroes of their favourite operas sucking on the cancer sticks, they will naturally think it's good for them to do too. "Hey, smoking must be OK - I saw it at the opera," is the cry that will echo across schoolyards.

So WA Opera deserves huge congratulations for nipping this in the bud. But let's hope it doesn't stop there. Let's hope opera companies around the nation take action to excise dangerous influences from their repertoire.

Take Wagner's Ring Cycle, for example - in this work, Wotan, chief of the gods, steals a ring which he must give to giants to pay them for building his house, lest they take Freia, keeper of the golden apples which keep the gods young.

Where to begin with THAT tangled web of poor example-setting?

An opera which teaches that stealing rings is a path to happiness; that it is acceptable for builders to operate in the cash economy and avoid fair taxation; that golden apples are a responsible way to maintain health and fitness as opposed to sensible diet and regular exercise; god help the poor children who get their life lessons from this Teutonic sewer.

Or what about the Magic Flute, an opera which promotes a reckless, flute-based philosophy of happiness that the vast majority of psychologists reject as a sustainable path to contentment and good mental health. Not to mention The Barber of Seville, which if I recall correctly features a man and a rabbit pursuing each other with increasingly large guns - what a violent image to burn into the public consciousness!

So it's certainly to be hoped that our opera companies refuse to perform any morally questionable works - or indeed that they stop performing opera altogether, as many experts agree that opera isn't very good. But let us be blunt: the corruption of public morals by perverted entertainments is not a problem quarantined to the seamy world of opera. Throughout the realms of art and entertainment are myriad pieces, many being consumed by an unsuspecting audience as we speak, that promote unhealthy lifestyles and destructive behaviour.

Take the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller - himself a notorious marrier of actresses. Not only is this play bound to disappoint the thousands who buy tickets hoping for an insight into the art of metallurgy that never arrives; it also clearly sends the message that hanging is the best way to solve one's witch problems. Modern witch experts agree that this is not a good long-term solution for anyone who has problems with witches. Although at least this is not as deadly a piece of work as hit "musical" Wicked, which recommends actually becoming a witch.

Another stage work that deserves proper scrutiny is perennial favourite The Sound of Music, which was also adapted into a film, and is often described as "a beloved classic", when a more accurate description would be "an evil-smelling suppurating boil".

In this reprehensible piece of propagandising extremist trash, we are taught many things: the virtues of disobeying one's father, for example; and the advisability of seducing an engaged man. We are, moreover, provided with the very clear lesson that those who selflessly serve in their nation's military are "bad guys", and that those who dodge their responsibility to their own country, and refuse to perform service to their people, are somehow heroes.

We're also expected to respect the hypocrisy of a religious order which sings a song about how terrible it is for a member of a religious order to sing; asked to applaud the shockingly dangerous risk-taking of a teenage girl leaping out her window to meet older men in the dead of night; required to applaud those who distort the fair conduct of an honest singing competition for their own selfish personal ends; and told to uncritically accept the suitability for a governess's position of a woman who gleefully misinforms ignorant children about the realities of meteorological activity.

Let's not even delve into the swamp of Shakespeare, who when he wasn't massacring everyone in sight or encouraging suicide, was enthusiastically promoting transvestism and making heroes of men who renege on their contracts with respectable lenders.

The stage world is crawling with such examples. I'm not saying we need to shut down the theatrical sector altogether: I'm just saying it's probably a good idea to do that.

But don't get complacent and think as long as your kids never go to the theatre they'll be free from pernicious mind-warping. Such obscenities can be found almost everywhere.

You take a risk even letting the kids pick up a book: for what if the book is Great Expectations, a tome filled with the glorification of criminals and disgustingly unsanitary advice on the preservation of wedding dresses? What if it is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a tale which mischievously downplays all the very real risks inherent in allowing unqualified juveniles to take control of rafts? What if it is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a dark saga of immigrant slave labour, spongeing retirees, and diabetes?

Where CAN we turn to for wholesome artistic expression? The cinema? Home of Pixar Films, a company that wants an entire generation raised to tie balloons to houses and treat plastic potatoes as sentient adults? It's movies which taught us not to report extra-terrestrial activity to the proper authorities and possibly doomed us to death from inter-planetary disease. No help there.

Maybe the small screen then - perhaps there's morality to be found in television? Sure, if you want your children to grow up thinking that yellow is a healthy colour for human skin. Your decision if you want your kids' jaundice to go untreated. And then there is Yo Gabba Gabba, which has been proven to cause laboratory mice to explode.

I do not wish to fear monger. There are many harmless works of art and entertainment in the world, which do not promote unhealthy lifestyles or pose a threat to public order or human happiness. It's just that right now I can't think of any. So to be safe, I think all arts bodies, theatres, production companies, networks and publishers need to be bold enough to follow WA Opera's lead, search thoroughly for anything that could potentially send harmful signals to the community, and cancel it.

Because when it comes to the moral fibre of Australian society, the old aphorism is true: better safe than entertained.

Ben Pobjie is a writer, comedian and poet with no journalistic qualifications whatsoever. View his full profile here.

Topics: opera-and-musical-theatre, arts-and-entertainment, books-literature