You would think that La Cieca would climb on her very high horse about the elementary school music theater in Colorado who riled up parents by showing the “Who’s Afraid of Opera?” version of Gounod’s Faust to her students. And certainly some of those parents overreacted in the good old American way. (One mom called the show “a satanic video,” when the real problem is the cheesy production values and Dame Joan Sutherland‘s mushy French diction.)

Oddly enough, though, La Cieca is inclined to take a contrarian position on this issue. Even when performed by a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and a supporting cast of hand puppets, Faust isn’t really a story for children. Take away the “classic” status, and what’s left? Attempted suicide, making a bargain with Satan, a song about how the Golden Calf rules the world, a virgin seduced with a box of jewels, the same girl (now pregnant and unwed) tormented by demons in a church, a brother cursing his sister just before he dies, insanity, infanticide, and a specifically Christian representation of an after-death experience.

Saying that video games or television shows are just as bad is irrelevant: the teacher didn’t bring Doom or “The O.C.” into the classroom. I really believe her heart was in the right place, and I think it’s wonderful that kids have some kind of exposure to opera. But the sexual and religious themes of this particular work are ripe for misunderstanding and consequent panic on the part of parents.

The good news is that opera can still be regarded as something other than anodyne. Oh, and while we’re on the subject, wouldn’t you know that La Cieca has a relevant video handy?