I like John Adams. For one thing, he's an artist, and a thoughtful
artist, and not a propogandist, and he's remarkably unafraid in his
choice of subjects for operas: Nixon in China is amazing. The Death
of Klinghoffer is on cd, maybe Richard should listen before demanding
he ties things up in neat morals and faux geopolitics. (I guess
Alice Goodman, his librettist, is coming in for the same kinds of
condemnation, words being the inflammatory component, but Adams seems
to be catching all the flak, I guess because he's so famous).
The New York Times ran an article by the musicologist Richard
Taruskin condemning Adams. He said in part that "if terrorism is to
be defeated, world public opinion has to be turned decisively against
it". So there's your artistic duty, folks.
Adams said in response that he felt like he was "being bombed from
30,000 feet by a B-52". "Not long ago our Attorney-General, John
Ashcroft, said that anyone who questioned his policies on civil
rights after September 11 was aiding terrorists; what Taruskin said
was the aesthetic version of that. If there is an aesthetic
viewpoint that does not agree with his, it should not be heard. I
find that very disturbing.
"In this country there is almost no option for the other side, no
space for the presentation of the Palestinian point of view in a work
of art. Susan Sontag said recently that she found the mood
unprecedented in more than 40 years, and I agree. I see all these
people driving their SUVs (four wheel drives) through the town with
their American flags flying from them, and it's really quite
something."
Thanks for the website, Jeremy. The interviews are really interesting.
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