“We Disrupt What We Love”

On November 30, the opening night of the Metropolitan Opera’s revival of “Tannhäuser,” we had reached the engrossing song contest in the Wartburg Castle from Act II. Baritone Christian Gerhaher, making his house debut in the role of Wolfram, was singing “Blick’ ich umher,” the character’s song on courtly love. As the music and libretto dipped into the metaphor of love as a spring, a protestor from the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion NYC unrolled a banner from high in the Family Circle section, stage left, and began shouting “Wolfram, wake up, the spring is poison! This is a climate crisis! There will be no opera on a dead planet!” He was followed by another on the opposite balcony; after they were removed and the opera restarted, a third protester began shouting from the orchestra seats.

The first protester was John Mark Rozendaal, a cellist, gamba player, and teacher. He was the founding Artistic Director of the Chicago Baroque Ensemble, has served as principal cellist of The City Musick, and performed with many of the leading period instrument ensembles in the U.S. He is also a coordinator with Extinction Rebellion NYC. The weekend after the night at the opera, he spoke with VAN about the protest.