Share
News

Popular Classical Radio Station Bans Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts Over Blasphemy, LGBT Themes

Share

A North Carolina classical music radio station is not airing six operas broadcast from New York City’s Metropolitan Opera due to objections to their content.

Station general manager Deborah Proctor wrote listeners in August to announce the decision. Proctor said in the letter she objects to one composer’s “non-biblical” interpretation of the birth of Jesus, according to a copy of the letter posted on social media.

“All age groups listen to our stations; we want parents to know that they can leave our station playing for their children because our broadcasts are without mature themes or foul language,” Proctor wrote.

According to NPR, Proctor said she had no second thoughts on the decision.

“If the Met wants to put these out as a ticketed organization with people coming to sit in their venue, for people who choose to be there, that’s one thing,” she said in an interview. “But to broadcast these things to anybody who might happen to tune in, that’s something else entirely.”

Proctor called WCPE’s programming “a safe refuge from the horrors of life.”

“I have a moral decision to make here. What if one child hears this? When I stand before Jesus Christ on Judgement Day, what am I going to say?” she said.

Do you agree with the station manager’s decision?

The letter announcing the decision went out to about 10,000 listeners, Proctor said. She said 90 percent of the roughly 1,000 responses have agreed with her decision.

Not everyone agreed.

Composer Garrett Schumann posted on X, the social media platform formerly called Twitter: “This is so pathetic. It really gives away the game with respect to some people’s and institutions’ beliefs as to classical music’s purpose in American society.”

Related:
Pop Superstar Gwen Stefani Shakes up Internet, Quotes John 3:16 and Celebrates 'the Birth of Our Lord'

Proctor said she is wrongly being accused of censorship.

“But I’m not banning these things. I’m just saying that on this station that I’ve been granted jurisdiction over — and 90-plus percent of the people who have answered the survey agree with me — it shouldn’t be on this station,” she said.

One of the operas the station is declining to air is “Dead Man Walking.” It’s based on the 1993 non-fiction book by Sister Helen Prejean, a Catholic nun, and the 1995 movie starring Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon, about the spiritual relationship between Prejean and a death row inmate.

Sarandon won the Best Actress Oscar for playing Prejean.

Proctor called the opera “Dead Man Walking” a “shock opera.” The opera, written in 2000, opens with a rape and two murders and ends with the inmate’s execution.

Proctor said the opera gay and lesbian-themed opera “The Hours,” based on a 1998 novel and 2002 movie of the same name, was not suitable because it was about suicide.

The opera “El Nino” was rejected for its treatment of Jesus. In the NPR interview, Proctor said the work was “non-biblical” and “unsuitable” for her station’s listeners, according to NPR.

Other operas Proctor is not airing, according to NPR, include “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” about the youth of a black man based on the memoir of the same name by liberal New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow; “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X,” about the assassinated Muslim activist Malcolm X; and  “Florencia en el Amazonas” (“Florencia in the Amazon”) about an opera singer searching for a lost love; and “Champion,” based on the life of a black gay boxer who won world titles in the 1960s and who kills an opponent in the ring.

The Metropolitan Opera did not respond to requests by the New York Post for comment.


 

 

A Note from Our Founder:

 

Every morning, we at The Western Journal wake up and pursue our mission of giving you the important information you need about what’s happening in America.

We can’t do that without your help.

 

America has been on the receiving end of false narratives. The purpose of these false narratives is to make you feel powerless. The Western Journal empowers you by breaking these false narratives.

But I wouldn’t be honest with you today if I didn’t let you know that the future of The Western Journal is in jeopardy without your help.

 

Silicon Valley and the Big Tech tyrants have done everything they can to put The Western Journal out of business. Our faithful donors and subscribers have kept us going.

If you’ve never chosen to donate, let me be honest: We need your help today.

Please don’t wait one minute. Donate right now – our situation in America is dire. Our country hangs by a thread, and The Western Journal stands for truth in this difficult time.

 

Please stand with us by donating today.
Floyd G. Brown
Founder of The Western Journal

Truth and Accuracy

Submit a Correction →



We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Tags:
, , , ,
Share
Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.
Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.
Jack can be reached at jackwritings1@gmail.com.
Location
New York City
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Foreign Policy, Military & Defense Issues




Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.

Conversation