The Bacchai and the BYU

[Solon]

You want to know from whence springs my deep-seated animosity towards the byu?

http://universe.byu.edu/node/2033

Seriously, this is insanity. The play is a bona fide classic by Euripides and is one of the finest pieces of drama ever produced. The fact it has survived to our day is nothing short of miraculous, in addition to being the result of painstaking care taken by conscientious men to write and preserve the words of the ancient playwrights.

BYU's actions are a slap in the face of humanity.

[Mormon Red Death]

So what is objectionable about the play?

[SteelBlue]

You want to know from whence springs my deep-seated animosity towards the byu?

http://universe.byu.edu/node/2033

Seriously, this is insanity. The play is a bona fide classic by Euripides and is one of the finest pieces of drama ever produced. The fact it has survived to our day is nothing short of miraculous, in addition to being the result of painstaking care taken by conscientious men to write and preserve the words of the ancient playwrights.

BYU's actions are a slap in the face of humanity.

Yeah that's quite embarrassing but not surprising.

[DU Ute]

So what is objectionable about the play?

Here's your answer:

“‘The Bakkhai’ on its surface is about sex, wine and losing one’s inhibition and at its core is about defining god,” West said. “I would have loved to discuss this in the BYU setting.”

This guy thinks he could have discussed this stuff at BYU? Hilarious!

[thesaint258]

From some of the pictures I saw on the news last night, it wasn't the classic play--the director has done his own interpretation and modernized the play. When I saw the pic of a guy dressed in S&M garb and read somewhere else that there are also sexual gestures (whatever that means), I thought, "They're surprised BYU pulled this?". I think if they'd done the play with a traditional interpretation, it wouldn't have been a problem. The people at BYU obviously know what the Bacchai is, and if they objected to the play itself, it would've never been scheduled at all. It was just this director's interpretation that they had problems with.

[Levin]

You want to know from whence springs my deep-seated animosity towards the byu?

http://universe.byu.edu/node/2033

Seriously, this is insanity. The play is a bona fide classic by Euripides and is one of the finest pieces of drama ever produced. The fact it has survived to our day is nothing short of miraculous, in addition to being the result of painstaking care taken by conscientious men to write and preserve the words of the ancient playwrights.

BYU's actions are a slap in the face of humanity.

Sounds like it was partly motivated by the "modern interpretation" of the play.

Have you seen the modern interpretations of classic operas in Europe lately?

Don't know if it would have been similar, but European opera at the moment is in disgusting shambles.

It doesn't sound like they were going to put on the play as Euripides intended; but a modern interp of it. So don't know how big a slap in the face to humanity this is.

Most modern interpretations are slaps in the face to the original author.

[I.J. Reilly]

I was tought the Bacchai at BYU in a humanities class. We read the entirety of the play and discussed the material. I was genuinely surprised that there wasn't an uproar in the class about the material. Unless the prof. was going rogue, and I don't think he was, then it is approved for use in the university setting. I'm not sure how this was supposed to be presented, but I guess the exception was with the specific interpretation, although I don't really know what they might have expected.

[SoCalCoug]

I had four semesters of Latin at BYU, and Roger MacFarlane (quoted in the article) taught three of them (his wife taught the other). He's a cool guy. Our class had t-shirts made up with his head on them.

[ERCougar]

My only comment was that I was about to inform you that "from whence" was redundant, but I looked it up to verify:

Although sometimes criticized as redundant on the grounds that “from” is implied by the word whence, the idiom from whence is old in the language, well established, and standard. Among its users are the King James Bible, Shakespeare, Dryden, and Dickens: Hilary finally settled in Paris, from whence she bombarded us with letters, postcards, and sketches. From thence, a parallel construction, occurs infrequently.

Lesson learned. Don't question PhD's. I won't feel smarter.

[LA Ute]

Have you seen the modern interpretations of classic operas in Europe lately?

I imagine that this version of Strauss's Salome would not go over too well at BYU (and probably not at the U. of U.):

The Judaean princess Salome is the epitome of sexually unhinged depravity who performs the Dance of the Seven Veils for her concupiscent stepfather, Herodes--as sopranos have grown slinkier, stage directors have increasingly enjoined them to end their dance nude--and demands as her reward the head of his prisoner Jochanaan, John the Baptist. After Salome kisses the decapitated head at the climax of a demented but undeniably lovely aria, Herodes orders his soldiers to crush her to death with their shields.

[ERCougar]

I imagine that this version of Strauss's Salome would not go over too well at BYU (and probably not at the U. of U.):

The Judaean princess Salome is the epitome of sexually unhinged depravity who performs the Dance of the Seven Veils for her concupiscent stepfather, Herodes--as sopranos have grown slinkier, stage directors have increasingly enjoined them to end their dance nude--and demands as her reward the head of his prisoner Jochanaan, John the Baptist. After Salome kisses the decapitated head at the climax of a demented but undeniably lovely aria, Herodes orders his soldiers to crush her to death with their shields.

And that was in 1906. (Not that I looked it up to see if I could find tickets or anything.)

[JohnnyLingo]

BYU's actions are a slap in the face of humanity.

I see you've been studying SU's posts. Very nice.

[Solon]

And that was in 1906. (Not that I looked it up to see if I could find tickets or anything.)

Modern interpretations of ancient plays are quite valid. They make the play have relevance to today's audience using current symbols and themes. In a way, they're more authentic than the originals because they connect with their audience (or at least try to) in the same way as the plays connected with Athenian audiences in the fifth century BC.

I saw a version of "The Persians" in Greece that was re-set in Iraq. It was awesome.

I'm fine if the byu wants to cancel the play. It's a private school; it can do what it wants. But don't expect any credibility as a university institution. It's a parochial school in every sense of the word, seemingly intent on indoctrination over education. Just because you stage a play, or read a text, or display a work of art doesn't mean that you have to embrace the values embodied or omitted from the work. It's putting the "universe" in university.

I find it sadly ironic that the play was canceled. If you've read "The Bacchai," you'll remember that the action turns on the reluctance of Pentheus to recognize or legitimize foreign ideas and religion. Instead, he bans the worship of Dionysus. His hubris leads to his death at the hands of the Bacchant women; his own mother among them, they tear the king to shreds with their bare hands.

Sounds like someone else is suspicious of foreign ideas and cultures.

[Solon]

I see you've been studying SU's posts. Very nice.

It's SU's world. I just pay rent.

[Levin]

I imagine that this version of Strauss's Salome would not go over too well at BYU (and probably not at the U. of U.):

The Judaean princess Salome is the epitome of sexually unhinged depravity who performs the Dance of the Seven Veils for her concupiscent stepfather, Herodes--as sopranos have grown slinkier, stage directors have increasingly enjoined them to end their dance nude--and demands as her reward the head of his prisoner Jochanaan, John the Baptist. After Salome kisses the decapitated head at the climax of a demented but undeniably lovely aria, Herodes orders his soldiers to crush her to death with their shields.

Fast forward a hundred years.

There are few arguments more muddling than referring to some progressive twist of old to justify contemporary twistedness without referring to the difference between the old twist and new twist.

Instead of nude women; think penis costumes.