Friday, October 21, 2005

A Cantata For Liebowitz Rachel


A play and the revival of that play all in a space of mere months isn't enough to celebrate the wonder that was Rachel Corrie. Now she rates a cantata, too!

Can sainthood be far off?
On 1 November the 'Cantata concert for Rachel Corrie' - co-sponsored by the Arts Council - has its world premiere at the Hackney Empire.
I love the irony of its opening venue. Hackney Empire. That about sums it up for me.

Still, is it any wonder, in an atmosphere like this, thoroughly aided and abetted by today's artistes, so full of zest and crusading spirit to do right in the world by gum!, the Chief Rabbi of Britain, Sir Jonathan Sacks, feels compelled to announce publicly that for the first time in his life, he has felt uncomfortable being a Jew in Britain.

Meanwhile, Clive Davis who actually has seen the play, and wrote a review of it, calls it, "an embarrassingly banal slab of agit-prop." Hardly surprising considering the knee-jerk, herd-mentality, bien-pensant perspective from which it was written. He suggests that the arts community has some serious growing up to do. Oh, but Mr. Davis, they're too busy feeling good about themselves for crusading against the evil Jews Zionists to worry about that.

He warns us, however, of what's to come:
In the meantime, I hear that Lincoln Center has expressed interest in staging the play, and the Royal Court is awash with requests from smaller companies. Depressing, very depressing. But not particularly surprising.
Perhaps I'm being naive, but I just can't see this as a real money maker - on consecutive nights - in NYC. But, hell, you never know. They might bus the moonbats in from all across the country!

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