![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Opera-Royal-de-Wallonie-Liege.jpg\")
Hindus are urging\u00a0Op\u00e9ra Royal de Wallonie-Li\u00e8ge (ORW) in Belgium\u00a0to withdraw \u201cLakm\u00e9\u201d opera; scheduled for\u00a0September 20 to October one; which they feel seriously trivializes Hindu religious and other traditions.<\/p>\n
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that reportedly taxpayer funded\u00a0ORW\u00a0should not be in the business of callously promoting appropriation of traditions, elements and concepts of \u201cothers\u201d; and\u00a0ridiculing entire communities.<\/p>\n
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, indicated that this deeply problematic opera was just a blatant belittling of a rich civilization and exhibited 19th-century orientalist attitudes. He also urged\u00a0ORW\u00a0to apologize for such an inappropriate selection.<\/p>\n
ORW\u00a0should have shown some maturity before selecting an opera like\u00a0Lakm\u00e9 (Lakshmi), displaying Western caricaturing of Eastern heritage and abetting ethnic stereotyping, Rajan Zed noted.<\/p>\n
It was highly irresponsible for an establishment like\u00a0ORW\u00a0to choose such an opera which had been blamed for caricaturing,\u00a0appearance of mocking of \u201cother\u201d cultures, colonial terminology,\u00a0degrading and offensive elements, dehumanizing portrayal,\u00a0essentialism,\u00a0narratives often failing to represent \u201cother\u201d cultures with dignity and humanity, imperialistic outlook, justifying ideas of superiority, looking down on people and customs,\u00a0misrepresentation,\u00a0considerably wrong about the culture it was supposed to be portraying,\u00a0needless appropriation of cultural motifs, patronizing flawed mishmash of\u00a0centuries-old\u00a0orientalist stereotypes,\u00a0pseudo and unabashed orientalism, reimagining Hindu traditions-practices-deities,\u00a0shallow exoticism\u00a0based on prejudice, etc.\u00a0ORW\u00a0could do better than this to serve its diverse stakeholders; Zed stated.<\/p>\n
Rajan Zed suggested\u00a0ORW Board President Willy Demeyer, General-Artistic Director select Stefano Pace and Music Director Giampaolo Bisanti\u00a0to re-evaluate its\u00a0systems and procedures and send its executives for cultural sensitivity training so that such inappropriate stuff did not slip through in the future.<\/p>\n
Zed also urged its partners\u2014 F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Wallonie-Bruxelles, City of Li\u00e8ge, Province de Li\u00e8ge, etc.\u2014to withdraw their support from\u00a0Lakm\u00e9 opera; and to rethink their relationship with ORW\u00a0if it continued with operas like\u00a0Lakm\u00e9, which trivialized traditions of \u201cothers\u201d; Zed added.<\/p>\n
Like many others, Hindus also consider opera as one of the revered art forms which offers richness and depth. But we are well into 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century now, and outdated\u00a0Lakm\u00e9, which\u00a0premiered in 1883 in Paris, is long overdue for permanent retirement from the world stage; Rajan Zed points out.<\/p>\n Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chaslin and Davide Garattini Raimondi are conductor and director respectively of this production of\u00a0Lakm\u00e9, whose tickets are priced up to \u20ac87.<\/p>\n Lakm\u00e9, a French opera in three acts, was composed by L\u00e9o Delibes and set in India in the mid-19th<\/sup>\u00a0century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hindus are urging\u00a0Op\u00e9ra Royal de Wallonie-Li\u00e8ge (ORW) in Belgium\u00a0to withdraw \u201cLakm\u00e9\u201d opera; scheduled for\u00a0September 20 to October one; which they feel seriously trivializes Hindu religious and other traditions. Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that reportedly taxpayer funded\u00a0ORW\u00a0should not be in the business of callously promoting appropriation of traditions, elements and concepts of \u201cothers\u201d; and\u00a0ridiculing entire communities. Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, indicated that this deeply problematic opera was just a blatant belittling of a rich civilization and exhibited…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":614970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47748],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-614969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}