When you run an opera company in this country, you get used to the threat of having to cancel portions of your season. It happens to the best of us. Fundraising goals aren't reached and you have to move (as gracefully as you can) to Plan B.
But you don't expect to find yourself discussing the cancellation of one of 5 announced operas because the composer who you're bringing over from Europe for the premiere of his new work can't get a visa!
But that's exactly the predicament we may soon find ourselves in. Word just came down from the State Dept. that said composer may not be permitted to enter the U.S. "for security reasons stemming from his past afiliations with anarchist organizations."
Is the "War on Terror" succeeding when we bar a 165 lb. soft spoken man in his sixties from entering this country because he may have once attended a rally or a meeting or what have you? I say this is utter rubbish and the current administration ought to be ashamed of themselves.
I intend to fight this childishness with all the aresenals at my disposal... even if it means boarding a Greyhound bus and picketing the White House.
Stay tuned for updates, kids. The premiere is not 'til November so a lot could happen 'tween now and then. Let's hope those boys in Washington come to their G-D senses! Boy am I pissed!
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