Opera so often has an aftertaste of evil. The character of Osmin in Mozart’s “Entführung aus dem Serail” is an embarrassing Middle Eastern caricature absurdly obsessed with blood and gore. Wagner’s knights and gods like to address their female counterparts simply as “woman.” Blackface still makes regular appearances in contemporary stagings of Verdi’s “Otello.” In Philip Venables’ “The Gender Agenda,” premiered at the Southbank Centre in London on April 12, 2018, featuring the London Sinfonietta under Jessica Cottis and the “anti-drag” performer David Hoyle, there was no such bitter aftertaste. Instead, the of-the-moment goodness of the work was hard to miss. (The German premiere will take place on April 22 in Frankfurt with Ensemble Modern.)
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