The Australian media is not alone in publishing the more bonkers essays, reviews and opinions, such as Jacqueline Malley’s article today from the Sydney Morning Herald.

She’s having a crack at Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. It’s the story of Figaro and his fiancée Susanna and two servants of the Count Almaviva, who live in the Count’s frescoed manor outside Seville.

Ms Malley reckons there’s a serious problem as Susanna tries to escape the egregious sexual harassment and rape attempts of her boss, the Count.

As this is sung in Italian, I have to take her word for it.

She states, “modern audiences find it hard to swallow the rampant raping, violence against women, heavy misogyny and slut-shaming of the genre, even if it’s Mozart.

In 2019, 190 of Australia’s leading composers, directors, musicians and vocalists signed a call to action demanding a “revolution” to remove from opera gender bias, sexism and dramatised violence against women. Opera has also been criticised for racism – the use of blackface in Otello, and yellowface in Turandot.

Just one questions, do you think Mozart gives a shit?

Ms Malley wrote she can, “no longer watch Woody Allen movies without discomfort, and I am squeamish when it comes to the music of Michael Jackson (which I used to love!).”

Diddums.

It’s a sad testament that this shit is published as an arts review rather than a more detailed piece on the lives of working class women in Australia.