Socialist Music

Extremely based agitprop cantata/opera. In the anglo establishment it is caricatured as evil and aggressively misinterpreted, possibly because HUAC translated it to smear Brecht and Eisler. (This production does not use the HUAC translation.)

While the Birmingham opera pushes the misinterpretation that it is about sacrificing yoursef for your values, in actuality it is a parable about a young passionate revalutionary whose idealism fatally clouds their judgement. I suspect that the translation makes this less clear, but I do not know the untranslated text.

Bonus points, I can't tell if the production is ironic or not. The cringe framing device feels ironic but the interviewer mentions solidarity with rail strikers at the end, so I can't tell. Either way, some of the audience and choristers interviewed seemed receptive.