On opera despoiled by nudity (Take 2 - less of a rant!)

Twice in the last three years or so, I have been to see performances of 'Rigoletto' which were desecrated by, for me, totally unnecessary nudity.

The first was the film of a live performance by the Royal Opera company. I had taken a friend who had never been to an opera before. I only wish we had left early because no amount of brilliant singing could take away the taste in our mouths. It had bare-breasted singers in the chorus, showed simulated sexual acts, including rape, and full-frontal male nudity. Had this been in the advertising material, we would have made the choice not to go, hence a sense of betrayal.

How can these brilliant singers prostitute their art, as it seems to me, by agreeing to perform in that way? Do highly reputable companies such as this not realise that they may seriously upset the senses and sensibilities of some (hopefully it's not just a few) of us by showing such explicit scenes. We don't need to see debauchery on stage to know it happened and happens, we have imagination for that. It ruined a night of glorious music and singing. Depicting it, in my view, is cheapened art.

The second performance was by the Ellen Kent company, whose productions I've seen many times before and found excellent. I thought I could trust them; not so, sadly. Life models (rather than singers) were used in the opening act but far more discreetly than in the Covent Garden production. The effect was disappointing rather than distressing. Could it be that when one company removes a barrier, it paves the way for others who may feel they have to follow suit in order to compete?

I truly believe that 'Nakedness', in a physical and spiritual sense, should be a gift bestowed by one person upon another, in a totally private situation, both of whom are inextricably joined to each other by intimate love.

Here, I would recommend one of Robert Graves brilliant poems, "The Naked and the Nude". He says what I feel - but with humour! I know it's lacking in my 'rant' but this issue is something which really upsets me, feeling as I do that it undermines what should be both the beauty of art and the beauty of physical love, the latter, requiring the privacy which taste and decency and etiquette used to deem appropriate. It debases the currency of what should be the highest expression of love between two people. (I'll shut up now I've had my say.)

PS The poem begins:

"For me, the naked and the nude
 (By lexicographers construed .." (Don't you just love that rhyme!)

and ends:

"By Gorgons with long whips pursued,
 How naked go the sometimes nude!"             (")