TSO sets a dangerous precedent
Cancelling pianist’s concert over opinions strikes a wrong chord
It’s a good thing Jeff Melanson isn’t running our public library system.
Or the city would need to hire 2,000 firefighters to keep up with all the book burnings this summer: “Bring me every copy of Harry Potter and The Catcher in the Rye. Let’s torch 50 Shades of Grey. It’s offensive. Could someone also get me Judy Blume’s number? I have some questions about this Margaret.”
Am I being unfair to Melanson, chief executive of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra? Perhaps. But this is my opinion and, here in Canada, we are allowed to express opinions, even ones that may seem unfair and offensive.
Outside of marriage, I don’t expect to be censored.
Man, you know who had some odious beliefs? Richard Wagner.
When not composing some of the most-beloved operas of the 19th century, he was quite the antiSemite, penning vile opuses such as Das Judenthum in der Musik.
Adolf Hitler adored Wagner. There is no Wagner ban at the TSO.
The same now can’t be said for renowned pianist Valentina Lisitsa, whose scheduled performance this week of Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 was annulled by Melanson due to tweets she wrote about the conflict in Ukraine.
“As one of Canada’s most important cultural institutions, our priority must remain on being a stage for the world’s great works of music, and not for opinions that some believe to be deeply offensive,” said Melanson, to the distant sound of John Stuart Mill and George Orwell headbutting each other.
Is it possible to reconcile “cultural institutions” and “not for opinions that some believe to be deeply offensive?” No. The spiritual charter of any cultural institution, important or otherwise, must have certain words etched between the operational lines, including “freedom of expression” and “don’t cave to special interests.”
Otherwise, we’re boarding a time machine and watching as Leonard Bernstein gets blacklisted during the Cold War or wondering why nobody in the late Renaissance seems to care that composer Carlo Gesualdo has murdered two people.
There is no Gesualdo ban at the TSO.
Lisitsa may indeed be offensive to those who disagree with her politics. But she has not committed a crime. Her face is not plastered on any Most Wanted list. She was not asked to deliver a controversial lecture. She was hired — and why does this sound familiar? — to play one of the “world’s great works of music.”
She wasn’t planning to editorialize during the concert, as the dazzling Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman did in 2009. During a Los Angeles recital, he offered intemperate thoughts on U.S. militarism and vowed to never return.
America was dead to him, a fact not included in that night’s program.
Musicians, like the rest of us, have opinions. I can still listen to early U2. But if I were forced to dine with Bono, I’m pretty sure I’d stab myself with a fork about 10 minutes into one of his debt relief spiels. Most sensible people can make a distinction between art and the artist, between what someone does and what someone thinks. As cultural consumers, we do this every day, which is why Tom Cruise still gets to make movies.
We vote with our ears, eyes, hearts, minds and, yes, wallets. So if you were offended by Lisitsa, the good news was that you never had to hear her play. The bad news is you may not get to hear someone else play in the future. By making the decision for us this time, by mistaking his TSO office as a precinct with the Thought Police, Melanson managed the impossible: an overreach in the most underhanded way. He capitulated to a vocal minority. He acted with cowardice. He was blinded to the post-Enlightenment values he should see even with his eyes closed, regardless of possible blowback and especially after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
The TSO sacrificed its own artistic integrity. It was remarkably tone- deaf. It set a dangerous precedent and, in doing so, made a mockery of the arts in this city. Cancelling these concerts was about as absurd and unwarranted as that time mayor June Rowlands banned the Barenaked Ladies because the band’s name objectified women. When we think about music and censorship today — China banning Bjork, Egypt banning Madonna, Malaysia banning Beyoncé — we usually get transported to places that seem light years behind us in terms of freedom and expression.
Until this week, those places did not include Roy Thomson Hall. vmenon@thestar.ca