Can a production ever rupture opera's moneyed bourgeois complacency? Will Self argues that opera cannot be as subversive in the 21st century as it once was.

This event was originally delivered as a live stream on 4 March 2015, focused around Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. In it the author and Professor of Contemporary Thought at Brunel University argues that Mahagonny, as it stands, cannot hope to be as subversive now as its creators originally intended.

The lecture sees Self in full flow, challenging the very purpose of opera and the organizations that create it. The clip also features internationally acclaimed soprano Angel Blue singing works from Weill and Brecht, including Mahagonny’s now iconic ‘Alabama Song’. In Self’s own words: ‘In the past operas provoked riots – I want my lecture about an opera to provoke one.’

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