Retired South African cleric Desmond Tutu appealed to the Cape Town Opera troupe this week not to perform in Israel.
The 79-year-old Anglican archbishop said Tuesday in a statement that it would be “unconscionable” for the opera troupe to perform in Tel Aviv. Last month he called on South African academics to boycott the Jewish State as well. The cleric received the Nobel Prize in 1984 for his peaceful opposition to apartheid in South Africa, but is known for his anti Israel views.
The opera troupe is scheduled to appear next month at the Tel Aviv Opera House in a production of what Gershwin considered his best piece, the opera “Porgy and Bess.” Tutu praised the work as having a “universal message of nondiscrimination.”
However, the cleric charged that the piece, presented in a performance by international artists, “advances Israel's fallacious claim to being a 'civilized democracy.'” He had no criticism for Hamas rockets aimed at civilians or the lack of free speech, women's rights or other freedoms in Arab areas, including the PA.
The performance will go on, the troupe said.
Managing director for the company, Michael Williams, said in a statement that despite its respect for the cleric, the troupe is “first and foremost an arts company that believes in promoting universally held human values through the medium of opera.”
As such, he said, the opera was “reluctant to adopt the essentially political position of disengagement from cultural ties with Israel or with Palestine.”
The performance, which comes during the company's first visit to Israel, is scheduled from November 12 to 27.