The philharmonic choir in Victoria, BC is presenting Handel's Samson oratorio as a suicide bomber in 1946 Jerusalem. From the article:The oratorio has the familiar music written in 1741 by George Frideric Handel with the same words, but the time and setting have been changed.
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Samson is an examination of a political and personal struggle, but updated to make it more relevant to modern audiences by drawing parallels with ongoing conflict in the Middle East, he said. "Samson could be any 'freedom fighter'," Capet said. ... In this version, Samson doesn't pull down a temple, but does bomb the King David Hotel, an actual attack by militant Zionists that took place in 1946. I love it when biblical stories are retold from an entirely different perspective -- and I think this one would work well. (that, and part of me loves the fact that this illustrates there's also passages of war and hate in the Bible -- the same as the Quran -- so no pointing fingers at who's religion is less bloodthirsty than others!)
It's funny how many brutal stories there are in the Bible, and yet these stories aren't questioned or are simply passed off as harmless Sunday School tales. How many times in my life have I heard these stories and never once thought of the larger implications that each one tells?
Nowadays when I see a nursery decorated in Noah's Ark, all I can think of is genocide and death -- not cute little animals walking up a plank, two by two. And don't get me started on the 10 plagues or Joshua's rampage in Canaan. |
