{"id":12109,"date":"2023-10-30T14:36:53","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T14:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/?p=12109"},"modified":"2023-10-30T14:36:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T14:36:53","slug":"israel-hamas-war-inspires-cancellation-handel-oratorio-cambridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/2023\/10\/30\/israel-hamas-war-inspires-cancellation-handel-oratorio-cambridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel-Hamas War Inspires Cancellation of Handel Oratorio at Cambridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cambridge University has cancelled performances of Handel\u2019s Saul due to its similarities to the situation in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Up?:<\/strong> The Cambridge University Opera Company has cancelled performances<\/a> of Handel\u2019s 1738 oratorio, Saul. Director Max Mason cited the oratorio\u2019s \u201cstriking synchronicity<\/a>\u201d with the current events in the Middle East as their reason for canceling. \u201cOur production was not the place to fully confront [these] issues,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Refresher:<\/strong> Saul, composed by G.F. Handel in 1738, is based on the Book of Samuel with a libretto by Charles Jennens. It tells of the jealous relationship between David and Saul, two Kings of Israel, after David has slain Goliath from the Philistines. The Philistines lived in what is now the modern-day Gaza Strip and inspired the name Palestine.<\/p>\n

Going Deeper:<\/strong> Critics of the opera company have called the decision an extreme example of cancel culture. David Abulafia, a professor emeritus of history at Cambridge, explained<\/a> that the Philistines were probably more closely related to Mycenaean Greeks than Palestinians upon hearing of the cancellation. Meanwhile, in New York City, the New York Philharmonic went ahead with another Handel oratorio that parallels today\u2019s events: Israel in Egypt.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cambridge University has cancelled performances of Handel\u2019s Saul due to its similarities to the situation in the Middle East.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":12110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[86,3,80],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/10\/The-Cambridge-University-Opera-Company-saul.jpg","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12111,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12109\/revisions\/12111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12109"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}