Robert Peters wrote: >2) The operas libretto is openly racist and misogynous. I am no regualar >guest in opera houses. How do modern productions deal with these >tendencies of the libretto? Thanks for any hints, 'Openly racist and misogynous' are too strong words. Because Queen of the Night and her Three Ladies are women and Monostratos has dark skin? Lady Macbeth is a woman too. Almaviva calls Bartolo 'mammalucco'. Does this make 'Macbeth' 'misogynous' or 'The Barber' 'racist'? 'Magic Flute' is not anti-ecological because of the role animals act! The play is not about bad women and good men, even if (according to some traditional artistic customs) some women represent dark sides of the world. Queen of the Night is not a cruel woman, but a cruel person. Monostratos is not 'black=bad' but perhaps 'bad because black', bad because he is different and thought about as being worse. Otello's problems come to mind. Taking Magic Flute (a tale!) or any other play literally makes them flat. Neither 'Don Giovanni' is a feminist opera, nor 'Cosi Fan Tutte' is anti-feminist. General ideas have their representatives on stage. People have to be men or women, dangerous animals have to be snakes or lions or belong to any other (real or imaginary) species. What the author wants to tell us lies deeper. Krzysztof Lorentz [log in to unmask]