Going tonight to see the Met's SALOME with its momentary Karita Mattila nude scene makes me think about my odd dislike of stage nudity. Really, it has nothing to do with prudery or 'morality'. It's simply distracting.
I have nothing against nudity in general. For years, we always stayed at clothing-free guest houses in Provincetown and went to the nude beach. When visiting NYC from Hartford, I used to stay at the Colonial House with its nude rooftop sundeck. I love pornography as much as the next fellow. Having lived a fairly promiscuous lifestyle up til my 50th year, I've pretty much seen it all. And we are invariably nude at home.
But I don't like seeing it onstage at the opera or the ballet. Dance belt, jock strap, g-string, see-thru, shirtless men, topless women: fine. But complete nudity is too distracting: you focus on that instead of on what is being sung or danced. You lose your concentration; you start feeling aroused and your mind starts wandering.
Of course, nudity in a stage production practically guarantees good box office. I remember a few years ago that NYC Opera gave a production of Gluck's ORFEO ED EURUDICE. In their pre-season publicity NYCO posted a small-print caveat under the details for ORFEO; "Warning: This production contains nudity". I was going to NYCO fairly regularly at that time; the house was usually 60-75% full. But when I went to ORFEO, it was packed. My usher-friend said every performance attracted bigger-than-usual crowds. It was actually the ballet (the music used by Balanchine for CHACONNE) that was performed nude. I've never seen so many audience members armed with big binoculars at an opera performance.
When Maralin Niska sang Emilia Marty in Janacek's MAKROPOULOS AFFAIR at NYCO she had a nude scene. Telling the Baron Prus how she had developed a masochistic streak, she doffed her dressing gown as she turned her back on the audience so we could see the whip-lash marks on her torso. Just tantalizing enough without showing it all. Catherine Malfitano also bared herself from time to time.
In SALOME, Mattila's nudity is brief and she's courageous to do it. But whether it really adds anything to the production is questionable.
Nudity aside, I was thinking of Leonie Rysanek's famous quote about the Strauss character: "There are three kinds of Salomes: those who can sing it, those who can dance it, and those who should be shot."