Opera is the New Punk

Opera music has gained new status as a form of youthful rebellion, thanks to some reactionary parents in Bennett, Colorado who blew their respective gaskets over a elementary school music teacher's decision to show a video about Faust in her class.

I'm going to resist the temptation to be similarly reactionary. Maybe it's ambitious to expect elementary school kids to show interest in opera. And maybe an opera about a guy who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for eternal youth is a bit on the heavy side for kids that have hitherto been exposed to nothing but VeggieTales and Digimon. Heck, the subject matter itself might have even been a little scary, even though it was presented in a video intended for young audiences.

Okay, I'm done restraining myself. Get a load of these boneheaded parents:

"Any adult with common sense would not think that video was appropriate for a young person to see. I'm not sure it's appropriate for a high school student," Robby Warner said after two of her children saw the video.

Another parent, Casey Goodwin, said, "I think it glorifies Satan in some way."

Okay. You, Casey. GET OFF MY PLANE. Faust glorifies Satan? I didn't even pay attention in Intro to Music History, but I still learned that Faust doesn't glorify Satan, at least no more so than the Bible does. Here I am, trying to make myself a better person my being less of a music snob, and then here you come, Casey, making me go back to my old ways. Stupid, stupid Casey.

And you, Robbie. Re-examine your definitions of the words "common sense," "appropriate," "young" and "high school." If, when your kids are high schoolers, your greatest fear is that their minds might be poisoned by classic works of art, consider yourself the Luckiest Parent in the World (and buy yourself a sweatshirt that says so). I'll wager that your kids, having been raised such in a stiflingly repressive environment, have to snort heroin and drink rubbing alcohol while firing pellet guns at stray dogs just to entertain themselves.

Somewhere, as I type this, a couple of kids are huddled around a record player, listening to Wagner's Parsifal in the basement whispering, "This is the part with the Procession of the Knights of the Holy Grail! Dude, we are so gonna be busted!"

[the story]