The evolving reality around us is becoming increasingly bleak if one considers what is happening across the other side of the Atlantic, what is happening in our neighborhood (both the immediate and the broader), and also what is happening next to us, in our city, in our home. As is well known, art is inspired by reality and synchronicity, even if it is bleak. So, I read in the news that the great Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth (if you don’t know her, look for her music on the well-known platforms, you will be impressed), in collaboration with Nobel laureate writer Elfriede Jelinek, are preparing an opera that will portray our era and feature a tyrant in the form of Donald Trump! The opera is temporarily — but the title may remain — called Monster’s Paradise and the goal is to present it in about a year at the Hamburg State Opera, commissioned by the upcoming artistic director Tobias Kratzer.
It is not paradoxical for personalities who are at the center of historical reality to appear on stage, especially in the context of an era while they are alive and active (and sometimes destructive…). Stalin often had the fortune to see himself on stage while he was, all-powerful, in power, embodied by a Soviet baritone recreating history, often with proverbial inaccuracy. On the other hand, I distinctly remember an evening when I went to watch Minas Borboudakis’ opera Z at the Greek National Opera’s Experimental Stage (incidentally, one of the best works I’ve seen in the last decade), and among the audience was the now deceased Christos Sartzetakis, former President of the Republic and a historical figure during the investigation of Grigoris Lambrakis’ assassination, as he was the prosecutor who uncovered the plot to eliminate the MP. So, Sartzetakis saw himself on stage, just as he had, of course, seen himself on the cinema screen when Costa Gavras’ film was shown. It must be a strange feeling, but fortunately, Sartzetakis was on the right side of history. What about Trump? I imagine he will be presented in all his grotesque glory, and judging by what I read about Neuwirth’s opera, the work will be a bizarre (and probably dystopian) Punch and Judy-type show, i.e., that of the British puppet theater which, despite its childish references, contains a lot of violence.
Ultimately, what remains is that Art must present reality, even in its bleakest version, and must ultimately take a stand. That is, it must describe situations because this way there is a chance for memory to be preserved so that we do not have to go through trials again, so that no more guinea pigs are made, so that future generations do not experience worse conditions.
