The idea for this month’s issue of Classical Singer began many months ago when we e-mailed a survey to readers asking for their opinions and experiences with nudity in opera. The e-mail’s subject line read “Survey on Ethics and Opera.” The responses began pouring in, and while the CS community is always terrific at sharing their opinions, this survey received hundreds more responses than is typical. We had obviously hit a hot topic.
I perused the responses with interest. Two especially caught my attention because in addition to responding to the questions on nudity, they also wanted to take issue with the e-mail’s subject line. One respondent, a singer and a lawyer, said: “The reason I write is . . . to raise a question about the title of your survey. Please consider whether it might more appropriately be entitled ‘Morality and Opera.’” And yet another singer wrote: “I feel you are mostly seeking responses to questions of morals, not ethics. The terms are often confusing and used inconsistently . . . ”
Wanting to be clear and consistent, I began my own search for what distinguishes “morals” from “ethics” and how they relate to the world of classical singing. I first took my search to the Internet, only to find more confusion and inconsistency. Fortunately, the dictionary offered clarity and simplicity.
Morals, according to the Oxford American Dictionary, are defined as the “standards of behavior that are considered good or acceptable.” Ethics are “a set of moral principles, especially ones relating to or affirming a specified group, field, or form of conduct.” Morals refer to personal character, while ethics refer to a particular group or community’s formal application of those morals.
Roberto Alagna’s saga of three years ago, recounted in this month’s cover story, is one of both morals and ethics. After receiving a loud chorus of boos from the notoriously harsh upper gallery at La Scala, the tenor left the stage mid-scene. Is booing ethically acceptable? It definitely occurs less frequently in the U.S. than Italy where societal norms have made it almost commonplace. Alagna says he left the stage on moral issues. La Scala administrators claim his behavior was a breech of contract. The house and the tenor continue to battle it out in court.
The rest of the issue deals with other specific moral and ethical dilemmas currently facing classical singers. Whether nudity belongs on the stage is a moral dilemma based on individual beliefs of what is appropriate. Greg Waxberg shares singers’ candid responses about how they view this increasing trend and the choices they have made based on their own dictates.
We cross over into ethics on matters of discrimination. Societal norms dictate that hiring or not hiring based on age or race is unethical. Rachel Antman takes a look at a long-held beef of many singers—the trend to hire younger and younger singers, thus aging out the not-even-middle-aged. Julie Lyn Barber reports results from a recent CS survey on racial discrimination, sharing singers’ perceptions today.
A handful of responses to the nudity survey inspired another article on a different issue of unethical behavior. Several singers reported that while they had never been asked to do anything they felt uncomfortable with onstage, offstage was another story entirely. Megan Gloss followed up with three of these singers to find out more. Their candid stories of sexual harassment behind the scenes are sobering.
Sexual harassment and discrimination based on age and race are not only unethical, they are also illegal. Be sure to look for AGMA national executive director Alan Gordon’s comments throughout this issue on what singers can do to fight back. He also weighs in on singers’ rights when it comes to appearing nude onstage.
Morals and ethics have distinct meanings, and yet the two are not mutually exclusive. Ethics evolve out of morals. Racial discrimination was once considered not unethical, because society’s norms said otherwise. Thus, as the individuals who make up the society setting the ethical norms, we can and should be publicly and shamelessly true to our own standards of acceptable behavior. Then, in our own way, we can uphold the current, good industry standards and also effect change by inspiring the establishment of new ones.
