{"id":19567,"date":"2014-06-23T11:42:30","date_gmt":"2014-06-23T01:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=19567"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:57:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:57:59","slug":"opera-give-it-to-me-straight-burgewords-creatingwaves-on-tamar_iveri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/opera-give-it-to-me-straight-burgewords-creatingwaves-on-tamar_iveri\/","title":{"rendered":"Opera, give it to me straight: @burgewords #CreatingWaves on @Tamar_Iveri"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Georgian<\/a>

Georgian soprano Tamar Iveri.<\/p><\/div>\n

Amid the ongoing flurry about Georgian opera singer Tamar Iveri and the comments she made in the social media about a protest march in Georgia on International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) in May, 2013, there is an assumption the soprano\u00a0is just one homophobic voice in an accepting international opera industry, an aberration who must be silenced.<\/p>\n

In an open letter<\/a> to her country\u2019s president, the singer compared gay people to \u201cfecal masses\u201d, a description picked-up by the social media ahead of Ivari\u2019s scheduled performances for Opera Australia this year.<\/p>\n

While I\u00a0believe it\u2019s hypocritical of her\u00a0to court\u00a0Western dollars for her performances while condemning Western values which have attained mainstream followings, like LGBTQI equality,\u00a0I\u2019d like to place Iveri’s conservatism in context, particularly in the Australian performing arts scene.<\/p>\n

Take the gay out of opera and what are we left with? One homophobic diva who thought all those designers, costumiers, wigmakers, make-up artists and hairdressers were just a little light on their feet?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Australian showbiz has long had an unspoken \u2018don\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u2019 policy about its same-sex attracted performing artists. From our televisions screens to our\u00a0stages, generations of us have grown up with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender entertainers and personalities, it\u2019s just that we never knew them that way.<\/p>\n

Almost forty\u00a0years* since Australia\u2019s decriminalisation of homosexuality started in South Australia, you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking the only \u2018queer\u2019 in prime-time, mainstream Aussie showbiz was Peter Allen, followed swiftly by the still-working Carlotta, Todd McKenney and opera singer Deborah Cheetham.<\/p>\n

Statistics and common sense tell us that the numbers are much higher than that. Kindness and respect tells me that it would be simply unfair to extrapolate the rumours about which of our stars were (and are) simply \u2018not the marrying kind\u2019.<\/p>\n

Does it really matter? Well, perhaps it does, when we are baying for blood over the homophobia expressed by a diva from the other side of the world, and\u00a0the performing arts industry she has been\u00a0a guest of puts on a very straight\u00a0front.<\/p>\n

The Tamar Iveri homophobia story reminds me of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad\u2019s reception at Columbia University in 2007, when he guilelessly professed<\/a> that they do not have the gay ‘phenomenon\u2019 in Iran. A ripple of snorts, which became a wave of laughter, washed across the audience\u00a0and\u00a0left\u00a0Ahmadinejad blinking.<\/p>\n

\"Iran's<\/a>

Iran’s President Ahmadinajad speaking at Columbia University in 2007.<\/p><\/div>\n

After expressing their deeply-held convictions about the level of homosexuality in their countries (Iveri cites a statistic with no evidence: “3 in 50” are \u201cborn gay\u201d, and the rest are \u201cfollowing the trend\u201d), both commentators had their foundations rocked.<\/p>\n

I see this as consciousness being raised, and I can only applaud it, because homophobia needs to be exposed, and that\u2019s best done in the limelight where it has maximum impact and ongoing ramifications.<\/p>\n

So what is going on in 21st century opera for gays?<\/p>\n

When I typed \u201cout gay opera singer\u201d into a search engine\u00a0I was met with extremes. The first news stories covered out gay opera singer, American counter-tenor David Daniels, who spoke with pride about his sexuality; and Swedish tenor Rickard Soderberg, who survived a random (possibly homophobic) attack.<\/p>\n

At\u00a0\u201c33 Opera Hunks Who Need To Serenade You Right Now\u201d, the parade of muscle men (one of whom, England\u2019s Ed Lyon, identifies as #teamgay) reminded me of beefcakes gracing the romantic fiction section of bookstores.<\/p>\n

Fabio is now the benchmark for the male opera star, not Pavarotti. Gone are the days when divas built like Brunhilde could pull-off the role of starving slave girl.<\/p>\n

Despite the sexy new out gay veritas in the opera industry, like closeted movie stars, gay opera performers might feel that being out while\u00a0suspending disbelief as a straight hero or heroine is a bridge\u00a0too far.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, amongst the ranks of design and directing staff in particular, same-sex attracted opera makers have\u00a0maintained a public silence about homophobia. The secrets of the most ill-mannered and worst-behaved divas have always been kindly kept behind the scenes, the stuff of myth.<\/p>\n

Pauline Pantsdown<\/a> is one of only a few voices of protest from Australia\u2019s showbiz industry\u00a0about the Iveri issue.<\/p>\n

Last Saturday, Opera Australia issued a statement announcing\u00a0Tamar Iveri\u2019s explanation of the circumstances behind her comments. Today, they released her from her contract.<\/p>\n

While I applaud their decision, when I think\u00a0about all the marriages of convenience and closeting in Opera Australia\u2019s not too distant past, the company’s decision to part ways with her at this late stage, over homophobia expressed more than\u00a0twelve months ago, contains\u00a0a level\u00a0of hypocrisy. That they f\u00eated\u00a0her so long, and seemingly so unaware, smacks of blindness.<\/p>\n

I would have liked to see Iveri perform in our country, just to see if the fuss caused any kind of protest.<\/p>\n

Surely at least one of the same-sex attracted opera staff might have sprung\u00a0something on her, like not turning-up for her quick change, or not combing her wigs. A\u00a0conductor could have downed a baton for Iveri\u2019s big numbers, or one\u00a0of the stage crew left\u00a0her waiting.<\/p>\n

Had she stayed, she couldn’t\u00a0possibly have gotten\u00a0through her Australian seasons without a hint of doubt about the ranks\u00a0of same-sex attracted men and women working alongside her in the Australian opera industry, and a large percentage of the paying audience.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s laughable to inhabit the opera industry and commentate negatively on homosexuality. Take the gay out of opera and what are we left with? One homophobic diva who thought all those designers, costumiers, wigmakers, make-up artists and hairdressers were just a little light on their feet?<\/p>\n

The work of composers Tchaikovsky, Britten and Schubert may one day land on Iveri\u2019s music stand. Will she refuse to place their notes and lyrics in her mouth and have them flowing across her vocal chords because these men, being same-sex attracted, were akin to fecal matter?<\/p>\n

Or will she swallow that gay shit and project it to the back row?<\/p>\n

Hopefully, the whole incident will\u00a0have a lasting positive\u00a0impact\u00a0on same-sex attracted performing artists in this country. If so, it\u2019s about time.<\/p>\n

\u00a0* This date was altered after information\u00a0provided by a No Fibs reader. See comments for details.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amid the ongoing flurry about Georgian opera singer Tamar Iveri and the comments she made in the social media about a protest march in Georgia on International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) in May, 2013, there is an assumption the soprano\u00a0is just one homophobic voice in an accepting international opera industry, an aberration who must be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":19570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,1624,675,1542,585,855,854,1510],"tags":[1928,1930,1654,1926,293,1932,1925,1924,1931,1927,1923,1929],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IVARI.jpg?fit=799%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-55B","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19567"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}