Letter from Keith J. Roland

To Festival Officials

My wife and I attended the performance of “Tosca” yesterday. It was beautifully performed and staged.

However, I take great exception to, and am angered by, your brazen effort at forcing the audience to suffer through the political propaganda blasted on the screen during the intermission. We came for the artistic performance, as written by Puccini, and not to suffer through your personal political outlook.

The left wing diatribe forced on the audience consisted of quotations from the 2017 radical pamphlet by the Trump hater Timothy Snyder, which just happens to be prominently featured for sale in the Glimmerglass gift shop.

While the claim may be made that the quotations—including dire warnings of authoritarianism, totalitarianism, tyranny, and tyrants, and its “call to arms and guide to resistance”—apply to all political persuasions, the text selected, and its key words of warning and resistance, are clearly aimed to turn the audience against the activities of the current administration.

Please don’t insult my intelligence by claiming this was solely a part of the opera. These words were not written by Puccini. He did not direct they be foisted on his audience during the performance of his opera.

Challenges to tyrants are a key theme in “Tosca.” That is perfectly appropriate. That is how Puccini addresses the subject, and seeks to motivate the audience. But that is for Puccini, not for you.

You are entitled to your personal political opinions. Mr. Snyder may or may not be correct in his writings. But you have no right to try to force feed those writings to the audience which came to see Puccini’s opera, and not be bombarded with your personal views.

Your conduct insults your audience and besmirches the artistic image of Glimmerglass.

Keith J. Roland
Albany