“Worse than Sodom and Gomorrah”. In the prestigious Salzburg Opera Festival, “one of the most important opera festivals”, a piece would have intermingled scenes worthy of the famous biblical places where debauchery reigns. At least that’s what a viral post on X (formerly Twitter) testifies, collecting 232,000 views to date since August 4. On the shared images, we see a baby offered for dinner on a tray as well as a bed of newborns. “Dead children everywhere, a baby served at dinner and applause from the public”, worries the publication.
The comments themselves are worried about the distortion of the works and the complicity of the spectators who seem to appreciate the show with a round of applause. Others wonder about the origin of the piece whose source is not indicated. 20 minutes therefore carried out its little investigation.
What is the Salzburg Festival?
For more than a hundred years, the Salzburg Festival has established itself as one of the most famous festivals, especially for opera. For two months, between July and August, the event has nearly 250,000 participants each year. For the 2023 edition, pieces like Le Nozze di Figaro of Mozart, as well as Falstaff And macbeth by Verdi. And it is precisely the latter that we see in the publications relayed on Twitter.
What is the story of Macbeth?
According to Shakespeare’s tragedy, published in the early 17th century, Macbeth is a subject of King Duncan of Scotland. During a battle that ends in victory, three witches predict a future reign for him. From the first act, the wife Lady Macbeth incites him to assassinate the king, visiting the couple. Which he will eventually…leaving the story to a tragic end. Throughout the play, built in five acts, Shakespeare returns to the thirst for power and the cruelty of men.
And in opera?
Presented on July 29 in Salzburg, Verdi’s play was directed by Polish Krzysztof Warlikowski and conducted by conductor Philippe Jordan. The opera is divided into four acts but remains equally bloody and Macbeth is once again depicted as a tyrannical monster. “Unbelievable dramatic intensity”, described on his side Arte. In Krzysztof Warlikowski’s vision, the child is placed in the center of the room. According to the local correspondent of the daily The world, this staging would show that “the prince is a child”.
But in the play, other elements constitute an important relationship with the child, especially when Lady Macbeth learns that she cannot have one. On several occasions, Krzysztof Warlikowski therefore stages dead or alive children, in particular at the end of Act II, during which we see a toddler presented on a tray. In short, for the Polish director, it is the frustration of the absence of descendants which could explain this thirst for power of the couple. And little by little, the vision of the children will become more and more difficult for the couple to bear… until they massacre them at the end of the third act. This explains the excerpt where we see the twenty or so dead children lined up in front of the stage.
Why the images can shock?
On X (former Twitter), the few excerpts may have shocked Internet users. For some, the images would take up Satanist codes where children are presented as an offering. These theories join the myths around of a pedo-Satanist elitewhere children would be kidnapped for pedophile rites, but also to collect their blood as an elixir of youth.
For others, this mise-en-scène is an ignoble and false representation of “real” artistic works. But at all times, whether it’s Shakespeare’s work or Verdi’s opera, macbeth is considered a chilling play in which tyranny is omnipresent.