@Germlat,
Sorry, I totally forgot about the cholesterol.
The orchestra, btw, plays quite often above 120 decibel (dB) = risk of instantaneous noise-induced hearing loss ...
(I do hope, Germlat, you've saved only sheet music!
Mmmm, I wonder if they could substitute the Carlos Saura film, Carmen Trilogy ..
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085297/?ref_=fn_al_tt_9
I've seem both Carmen films, but back in the early eighties, so I forget a lot. Quite different from each other, anyway.
I'm jesting of course. This whole situation is absurd.
@ossobuco,
The more famous Carmen film -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087034/?ref_=fn_al_tt_5
I don't remember if there was smoking in either of them.
A story of a Catholic deacon who was illiterate.
This is the 16th century and from Roma came the order that deacons must read the biblical verses that belong to the mass service each Sunday. The priest told his deacon about the news. And the deacon who can't read and had problems learning it, lost his job.
Walking thru the streets looking for a place where to buy tobacco, he found out that only three streets in the entire city sold it. He then decided to install more tobacco stores in every street. He started to be very successful, at that point that he was called from Spain to make contracts with huge business people who were interested in the trade of Tobacco to the old continent.
When he was there, a contract was put over the table for him to read and sign. He told them that he will do it on the next day, because his manager will read it to him and sign the contract in his name. He explained them that he was illiterate.
"Illiterate?!!!" asked him the rest of business men, "but, how? Look at yourself, you are one of the greatest tobacco merchants in the world "
And one of them asking in a way of making a comment said, "what you should be right now if you knew how to write and how to read?"
"A deacon of a church" answered the other with humility.
I think that there is to fall in an unnecessary confusion when in an "art work performance" tobacco is smoked or presented as part of the culture of those former years, when it was unknown the health risk of this custom. We cannot mix it with the current wave of prevention and teaching that tobacco smoking is not healthy.
Such reaction to stop the presentation of Carmen, the opera, is simply: bad judgment.
@Setanta,
Setanta wrote:
georgeob1 wrote:. . . who lack a balanced understanding of life and the freedoms of others to do as they choose. It's common enough in this country, and I suspect it is no more true today than it was centuries ago.
Yes, indded . . . like conservatives who oppose the dissemination of contraception information, sex education and abotion--not solely for themselves and their families, but for everyone.
Or the government which forces association with these same things on everyone.
Carmen is about smoking???
I've seen Carmen about three times in my life.....um, it's not about smoking.
Joe(except she is smokin' HOT)Nation
@Joe Nation,
Joe Nation wrote:
Carmen is about smoking???
You're right it isn't. The only connection is that Carmentn worked in a cigarette factory where the knifing that brought her and Don Jose together occurred. There's a lovely scene in the First Act in which the women workers and their men gather in a nearby plaza after work to talk, smoke, and dance. The scene ends with Carmen's Habanera. That's it !
I also agree she's a hot character.
Clearly an idiotic move on several levels and I am hoping the majority of Australians agree with me. I would like to think this is one isolate incident, but hawkeye's post shows it isn't.
@georgeob1,
Nobody forces such ideas on anyone. You just make your horror stories up as you go along.
@Setanta,
You are dead wrong in this assertion. Employers, even private ones, are required to provide birth control including 'morning after' abortion drugs as part of their health care plans; employment laws restrict hiring choices in 'preferred' areas; public schools provide mandfatory indoctrination in most of this. No employer or parental choice is allowed.
@georgeob1,
georgeob1 wrote:
You are dead wrong in this assertion. Employers, even private ones, are required to provide birth control including 'morning after' abortion drugs as part of their health care plans; employment laws restrict hiring choices in 'preferred' areas; public schools provide mandfatory indoctrination in most of this. No employer or parental choice is allowed.
Sorry...you're wrong!!! There are many institutions who don't provide that choice. Ever try working for a Catholic Hospital...you don't know what you're talking about....
@Germlat,
Then why are they going to the Supreme court to escape the stipulations of the ACA?????
@georgeob1,
georgeob1 wrote:
Then why are they going to the Supreme court to escape the stipulations of the ACA?????
I'm stating what is currently practiced....not disputing what is done about it. Learn to read. And yep....it is still lawful for catholic institutions to DENY coverage of contraceptive services to their employees.
As has already been pointed out, there is plenty of bad behavior depicted in opera. Indeed, if it weren't for the bad behavior, it wouldn't be worth seeing. It's odd that tobacco use would be singled out when Carmen also involves murder, infidelity, brigandage, and bullfighting, but there you are.
I don't blame the health agency for insisting on a tobacco ban in the stage works it sponsors. I still don't know why a health agency is sponsoring an opera company, but if it's paying the piper it gets to call the tune. Instead, I blame the opera company for accepting a gift with these kinds of strings attached.
An update:
West Australian Opera is once again in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. The company was recently heavily criticised for proposing a two year embargo on staging Bizet’s Carmen due to its depictions of smoking in an ill-judged attempt to curry favour with their new corporate sponsor, Healthway. Now it has been announced that the company’s Artistic Director Joseph Colaneri and Chorus Master Joseph Nolan will both no longer be working with the company after the current production of Verdi’s Il Trovatore closes on November 8. ...
To add to the company's embarassment attention has been drawn to the presence of smoking in their current remount of Elke Neidhardt's production of Verdi's Il Trovatore. According to WAO, Healthway have accepted the offending acts with good grace on the understanding that it was felt important to be true to the vision of Neidhardt who died of cancer earlier this year. While the irony has not been lost on some, it does appear that the smoking issue will be a rod for the company's back for some time to come.
@joefromchicago,
joefromchicago wrote:
As has already been pointed out, there is plenty of bad behavior depicted in opera. Indeed, if it weren't for the bad behavior, it wouldn't be worth seeing. It's odd that tobacco use would be singled out when Carmen also involves murder, infidelity, brigandage, and bullfighting, but there you are.
I don't blame the health agency for insisting on a tobacco ban in the stage works it sponsors. I still don't know why a health agency is sponsoring an opera company, but if it's paying the piper it gets to call the tune. Instead, I blame the opera company for accepting a gift with these kinds of strings attached.
That's why I like my opera...it's so raunchy!
