BOO BACKGROUND. . .

          For those of you who have not followed the Swed/Rense tete-a-tete, here’s a recap.
          I am, in fact, the “Lonely Booer” of the Achim Freyer production of “Die Walkure, the second of the “Der Ring Des Nibelungen” operas of Richard Wagner being staged by L.A. Opera. (Note: there were hordes of us for the first opera, Freyer’s desecration of “Rheingold,” and I can only assume they were moved to stunned silence by the music of Walkure. Either that, or paralyzed with incredulity at Freyer’s asinine staging.)
            You will find the column I wrote about this (which Swed described as “bragging that booing is a badge of honor”) here. You may also read Mr. Swed’s review of Walkure, in which he first singled out a “lonely booer valiantly trying to be heard over loud bravos when the German artist Achim Freyer, the designer and director of the company’s first and supposedly controversial “Ring” cycle, came on stage for his bow,” here.
          And his latest essay, in which he equates booing with "bile in the name of free expression," may be found here. 
            Balcony A. Front Row. Hands cupped to face. Leaning forward. Projecting. oooooooooooo all through the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Me. The guy who yelled “Robert Wilson is a fraud” before walking after act one of “Parsifal” a couple years ago (prompting a few people to yell in solidarity.)
            Caught up? Yayyyyy!

                                             BACK TO PAGE ONE