Mel Brooks with The Producers has made it impossible for all time to parody this sort of thing. But here is The Producers come to life. “London opera on Qadhafi hits right note,” from AFP, with thanks to Fjordman:
LONDON — Once seen by Washington as “the most dangerous man on the planet” but considered a charismatic hero by others, Libya’s Colonel Muammar Qadhafi is the main character in a dazzling modern opera in London.
It has everything to keep spectators on the edge of their seats: images of the desert covered in oil and blood, documentary footage on war and revolution, bombs, missiles, rap music, and beautiful female bodyguards in red high heels.
More of an audiovisual spectacular than an opera, Gaddafi: A Living Myth, follows step by step the enigmatic Qadhafi and his times to the hip hop beat of the British group, Asian Dub Foundation….
The project was born three years ago when the musician Steve “Chandrasonic” Savale persuaded the then director of the English National Opera (ENO), which in turn asked the Asian Dub Foundation to do a piece on Qadhafi.
Savale, who wrote the script, was fascinated with Qadhafi because of his “dramatic duality.”
“Who is Qadhafi?” asked Savale, speaking at the theater near Trafalgar Square.
“Is he a brutal tyrant, sponsor of some of the most destructive acts of terrorism of the last 50 years? Or is he a steadfast anti-imperialist champion of the oppressed peoples of the Earth? A misrepresented national hero? Or a paranoid narcissist? Or is he just a marginal figure that would be irrelevant if he did not have control of what so many powerful forces want: oil.”