Keynote speech of Mr. Gérard Mortier, Director General of the Paris Opera

English summary of the speech held in French, English and German

ISPA Regional Conference 22nd September, 2006, Palace of Arts – Budapest

A work of art is – among other things – the artist’s political manifesto. That can appear in literature, painting, music or any other art forms. In the course of artistic creation the artist considers the society where he lives, his position, and the views of the social group he represents. Even the art pour art approach is a political manifesto, which sends the message that art needs nothing else but itself.

Literature and the theatre can express art’s political content more directly than music. It would be difficult to prove with examples that art is totally devoid of any political content. A political message can be deduced even from Haydn’s symphonies. Mozart’s Paris Symphony appears to have a political component because a kettle-drum is used in its final movement.

If we ignore art’s political content, we strip it of its strongest component. How do define the term “political” in this context? Obviously, I do not have party politics in mind. Instead, I refer to the determination to improve the conditions under which people live, seeking ways to fight repressive regimes and promote democracy and solidarity. It is not by accident that Europe pioneered in declaring the fundamental freedoms.

The laws that Parliaments adopt cannot cover the entire range of problems. That is where art’s mission begins: it aspires to fill in the gaps left by legislation. I am not suggesting that art is an adjunct to legislation. Art proves that some of the major issues cannot entirely be handled by legal means; human lives offer too wide a gamut of problems to be fully covered by statutes.

One might put the question whether or not current public affairs might be the subject of a work of art? Indeed current affairs often need to be the initiator of artistic creation. I can mention the example of Ariane Mnouchkine, whose works reflect on current affairs.

To what degree can works of art of the past respond to current problems? It is common knowledge that works of Beethoven have been used by dictatorial regimes and democracies alike. The European Union has selected the Ode of Joy as its anthem. One wonders whether or not the European Commission is familiar with the essays that examine the various political uses of Beethoven’s works. Beethoven was a politically sensitive composer.

There can be a political reading to works by Haydn and Mozart too. On several occasions I have seen noted conductors smile when they read orchestral scores of Haydn. They smile because Haydn took certain liberties in composing his works that the rules of music normally do not allow. In my interpretation that also belongs to the realm of politics: its lesson is that at times the academic rules are not identical with the rules of high art. It is necessary to make it widely known that art is political action because the institutions we work for receive government subsidies.

It is an epochal achievement of European society that the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen [1789] includes man’s right to education and culture. It is the duty of the state to guarantee the exercise of those rights. I understand that some civilizations – that of the United States, for instance – think otherwise. Let us not forget: the United States was founded by the Puritans, who treated art as a private affair. That is why they developed another system. I for one commit myself to the European system.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was the result of a long struggle so we cannot afford to let it discarded because of globalization in the realm of business. I consider cultural globalization dangereous.

Our cultural institutions are beneficiaries of state support and patronage (mécénat). Patronage should complement state support for works of contemporary artists. There are several governments in Europe nowadays that are seeking ways of replacing state subsidies with patronage altogether. We have to oppose such efforts; and that is what I do whenever I have a discussion with politicians.

It is often forgotten in Europe that in America – even though the Americans consider culture a private affair – support granted by individuals is often bigger than what the arts get from the state in Europe. That is because of numerous tax benefits and other allowances the United States gives to supporters of art.

In Europe it is the subsidies that we get from the state that compels us to protect the generally accepted values of society and what is enshrined in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. I cannot afford to arrange performances that are only meant to entertain, I have to hold a mirror up to my audience. Art – so we have been taught by the classic Greek plays – has the potential of bringing about the catharsis, whose is aim is to liberate rather than shock the audience.

On several occasions in history works of art have been used for political purposes. We must oppose that.

Addressing my words to the non-European participants in this conference: I am aware that at times we, Europeans, used the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and some other such manifestos in our drive for world hegemony. We forced others to accept this alleged freedom before possessing that ourselves. I think highly of what European societies have accomplished but I never slight the results of other societies. Day by day I learn new things from other cultures, the African one for instance. African culture also has its Konrád or Picasso, and we know that Europe’s twentieth-century theatre would be inconveivable without its encounter with the Japan’s Noh Theatre or the Kabuki.

Today politicians find it difficult to define European identity because they spend little time reading literature, listening to serious music or watching paintings. If they tried hard, they could ascertain European identity from works of art in various genres.

Don Juan and Faust are two important European mythical figures. We did not inherit them from the Greeks or the Romans, we created them at the dawn of the Modern Era. Faust is a manifestation of intellectual desire, and that is an offshoot of protestant culture. Don Juan is a manifestation of carnal desire, which is a consequence of Catholic culture. Ever since St. Augustine, Catholic culture has considered sexuality a sin.

These days we once again have to defend women’s freedom of expression against certain clerical endeavours to muzzle it. I adore Arabic culture but we are obliged to point out cases when it makes unjustified encroachments on citizens’ freedoms. Such excesses occurred in Europe at the hands of Catholic clerics in the 16th century.

Women’s rights are a recurrent theme in works of art. It can be ascertained that in the past Europe was patriarchal. There are several operas where women jump into the water or get burnt (Brunhilda or Senta) to save the lives of men. In other works the woman appears as the eternal temptress (Eve, Carmen, Lulu, Salomé or Lolita). Certain paintings, as for instance, those showing Judith and Holofernes, are highly informative about women’s position in European society in the past.

Despite the issuance of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and despite the fact that Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell sent the message that Switzerland is a democratic country, women only got the vote in Switzerland in 1971. Novels that tell a lot about the situation of women include Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary and Hedda Gabler.

Another observation about the relationship between men and women. What Lohengrin tells to Elsa is typical: “Never shalt thou ask me, nor have a care to know, whence I am come, nor what my name and condition!”

Globalization cannot do away with national diversities. On my way to Hungary I found time to read about the history of Hungarian culture. It was the first time I learned that a legend about the ancestors of Magyars mentioned a miraculous stag that was chased by two sons of a king. That prompted me the thought that the relationship between man and animal (for instance, the abduction of Europa by a bull) is a recurrent motive in legends, even if it appears in different forms in legends of different peoples.

Let us have a look at the storyof Ariane and Bluebeard. Bluebeard’s Castle is one Bartók’s fines operas. To understand the difference between certain nations of Europe, it is enough to compare Bartók’s opera with Paul Dukas’ Ariane and Bluebeard, which was written on the basis of a play by Materlinck. What is the difference between the two? In Bluebeard’s Castle Ariane and Bluebeard lock themselves in the castle. By contrast, in Materlinck’s Ariane and Bluebeard Ariane quits and leaves the other women in Bluebeard’s company. The two storylines are eloquent expression of the difference between the two countries. Reason can prevail in France but Hungary, just as the other countries of Central Europe, is landlocked, which means there is nowhere to flee.

It is our mission to support the work of the European Commission. Each of us should propagate the message in their circle that we are brothers and sisters. Even in large families it does occur sometimes that siblings are different and even angry at one another but they never forget that they have the same father and mother. It is culture that can help us learn our “family,” that is, Europe. That is what we have to support.

Works of art have become commodities with readily definable prices. In the past they were paid for by aristocrats and the Church, today by civil servants and the middle class. I experience that in the field of classical music day by day.

In the past attention focused on composers, today on the performing artists. In fact, some think that interpretation is more important than composition. Few members of the audience can read music. Worse, even opera critics prefer to assess the value of performances on the basis of the CD recordings they have at home rather than comparing live performances with the score.

Symbols of fashion have started pervading the art world. As a result, the image of photo models and opera singers has become hardly distinguishable in the public mind. For instance, even singers like Cecilia Bartoli need to be photographed standing next to a Jaguar car to make a good impression.

Some sections of the audience think that unless a performance is hyped into a big event, it is not interesting. I am opposed to that. I adore stars but do not allow them to call the shots. Some singers do not sing at the Paris Opera any more because I did not let decide who should make the staging or who should conduct an opera. Such an attitude certainly requires courage on behalf of the management.

I did a revival of Salome without hiring a star for the job. I was happy to see that the singer we chose had as much success as the star who sang Salomé before. So the public finally will accept when we make stars of good artists.

Nowadays contemporary art is becoming the exception and historical art is the rule. That is unprecedented in the history of arts. In the past contemporary art was the rule and old works of art were the exception. Mozart, for instance, had to go out of his way to find scores of Bach and Händel when he sought inspiration for his Mass in C Minor because in his time those works were not played. And Mendelssohn was instrumental in reviving the Passions of Bach. Education certainly bears some of the responsibility for this present state of affairs.

The general public, and especially young people, know very little about artistic references and the categories of art. Here is an example. Verdi’s Falstaff closes with Falstaff saying “Tutto nel mondo e burla” (The whole world is a big farce.) The musical genre chosen for that part is the fugue, which is the most severe musical for of Occidental art. For the audience to appreciate the contradiction between content and form, people should be familiar with Shakespeare, Italian music and the theory of musical forms.

I welcome the fact that, just like in the 19th century, present-day cultural institutions bring together several forms of art: theatre, dance and opera.

It might cause certain tension that some orchestras receive state subsidies and others do not; and in some countries compulsory working hours are 35 hours, in other countries more.

I disagree with the popular opinion that new technical solutions mean the democratization of arts. The new technologies are in hands of large corporations, which want to earn money with the new technologies. In fact, technological advance has narrowed the range of artworks on offer. When you look at what is recorded nowadays, it is less and less either with stars or with a certain repertoire.

Many people are proud owners of the Complete Works of Goethe yet few read those works. The Collected Works of Mozart are now available for just a hundred euros, and that might be a major commercial success, but it is boring to listen to all the works of Mozart. We should not draw the wrong conclusions from sales results.

When we formulate recommendations for the European Commission, we should bear the whole of Europe rather than just isolated projects in mind.

I welcome the idea that the European Commission plans to support both the production and the distribution of films. That is of relevance especially in view of competition from the US films.

The European Commission considers it a priority that the cultural history of Europe should be presented to the general public in the following media: books, pictures and websites, and we could be helpful in those efforts.

We should convey the message to Brussels that perhaps the European Capitals of Culture project is about to come to an end. Please consider that we should come forward with the recommendation that the next stage could be various forms of exchanges between the European capitals of culture. In concrete terms that could mean that instead of just selecting this or that city as a “capital of culture,” large-scale culture exchange should take place between, say, Budapest and Lisbon. I propose that because, in my opinion, one of Europe’s problems is that people know little about one another’s culture. In that sense some sort of an “iron curtain” is still there in many places. I find it alarming that people in Western Europe know so little about Hungary and the rest of Central Europe. I myself was no exception until recently. I am now learning more and more about the history of Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, and that is because I have read some relevant books.

In case our recommendation about cultural exchange between European cities fails, then we should propose exchanges between cultural organizations. We should encourage direct exchange between, say, cultural organizations in Spain and Portugal on the one hand and in Budapest on the other. The European Commission would also appreciate such efforts.

I plan to speak up for the intensification of the Erasmus Programme thereby to encourage the exchange of as many young people as possible. That could help Hungarian and Polish young people to visit, for instance, countries in southern Europe. For Hungarians, in my view, visiting distant European destinations is more valuable than visiting, say, neighbouring Vienna.

A few words about the day-to-day tasks of our organizations. We should better cooperate in coordinating the content of our websites. Internet websites lend themselves ideally for coordination especially now that there is a tendency among organizers of concerts and opera houses to develop programmes around a central theme. Think of Rotterdam, for instance, where freedom has been chosen as a central theme. Let us hope that appropriate financial resources will also be found for such efforts.

There is another issue I ask you to think about. As concert organizers you are better disposed than opera houses to mount major projects that are later shown also in other parts of Europe. I have heard, for instance, that the SWR Southwest German Radio, as led by conductor Michael Gielen, has organized the performance of Schönberg’s Gurrelieder – which is quite an accomplishment. It would be most useful if in the course of such a large-scale meeting as this one, some ambitious projects like that one were conceived. The Year of Olivier Messiaen is a good example. Let us hope that during 2008 it will be possible to stage Messiaen’s monumental opera St. Francis of Assisi, and to perform it in cities where it has never been shown before, for instance, in Central Europe.

Finally, a word on the younger generations. I am aware that all the cultural institutions have programmes that address young people but, in my view, it is not enough to fill our concert halls with young people. More important is that those young people should feel that they need such experience and it is part of their human existence. That is an area where there is much yet to be done. Offering tickets at reduced prices is not enough. Joint action is needed to develop books and technical devices that sensitize young people to serious music. Various approaches are possible but what really matters is that we should know: there are enormous untapped potentials in that field.

There have been dramatic changes throughout the world. Terrorism will not go away. China’s global weight is bound to grow, which means the overall balance of power will inevitably transform. It would be naivety to think that Europe can regain the status of a major world player. Europe’s strength lies in its cultural and historical conscience.

Europe has always keenly observed the cultures of other continents. European authors shun expressions like the “clash of civilizations.” Instead, they write about the interplay of civilizations.

I sincerely hope that within fifty years the European Union will be transcended by a European Federal State. I will support that idea as long as I live. As a federation Europe will be able to preserve its intellectual and spiritual strength. I envisage a European federation where each of the countries and regions foster their specific cultural traits.

I am optimistic. I am aware that great writers and performing artists – who otherwise might be fatalists – tended to be optimists in their artistic output. Think of Shakespeare. As a man, he may have been a pessimist fatalist, and yet in his final years he wrote The Tempest. In that play people (including brothers) who fought one another throughout their lives eventually find harmony and satisfaction. Throughout the wild adventures of the play Ferdinand and Miranda – representatives of the young generation – entertain themselves by playing chess. Chess is a symbol of real-life events. Playing chess did not diminish their attraction to each other. Prospero derives encouragement from Miranda’s and Ferdinand’s love. He uses his magic power to settle the conflicts among the intruders in the island. Then he casts his magic books into the sea and breaks his magic wand. He will not need it any more.

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