A critic at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro informs us that an enormous Palestine flag was unfurled across the entire stage on the closing night of Cambiale de Matrimonio. Our observer says: ‘After the enthusiastic applause for everyone including the conductor, suddenly a huge Palestinian flag came down covering the whole stage from left to right and halfway down so that the soloists could still be seen. I was so shocked that I walked out as soon as I saw it. It was far far worse than what happened at the Royal Opera house, because obviously the stage crew at the very least were in it.’
Pesaro is apparently twinned with the Gaza town of Rafah.
Fourteen years ago there were ructions at Pesaro when the British director Graham Vick reimagined Mose in Egitto with Jews as the oppressors and Moases as a Bin-Laden-type terrorist. Vick remained defiantly proud of his concept, earning himself a ban from Israeli Opera.
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