Here we have the Opus Klassik from 2022 and perhaps you already guessed correctly from the title that this is an awards ceremony for classical music. It ran for slightly over two hours and took place not too long ago, so still a very recent show and also review, of course depending on when you read this review of mine. If you look up the word "Opus" in the dictionary, you will find an explanation that probably sounds like something that is really big and creative and the French term "oeuvre" is surely not far away from this if we look at the linguistic connection. The word "opulent" also comes to mind. If you look at my rating here, however, you will understand right away that I cannot call this a success at all. Maybe opulent it was given where it took place exactly and how people in the audience as well as on stage were dressed, but in the creativity department this ceremony came painfully short. I am not even referring to the honorees here, some of them are pretty talented without a doubt, but still at the same time this was an awards show nobody needed. If we take a closer look at the occasion, you can say that all this here is a classical-music-only successor to the Echo Awards that got discontinued a few years ago when a rapped received an award and some of his music was discriminatory to women and other groups too. Needless to say that the eternally hypocritical Campino from Die Toten Hosen was one of the first to call out the winner. I am not saying that the guy who won the award back then did nothing wrong, but I am saying that he is not the only one to blame and those who decided to hand him the award that night might have paid better attention. And I am pretty sure that those who showed the most outrage, are not one bit better than said rapper.
But this is the past now. Let's look at the now. Why am I even making this reference? Well, I did for you to better understand things in the context as a whole. This ceremony had a similar critical moment. We had another rapper this time who did not win, but held a speech to introduce a winner. Said speech was so unfunny, uncreative and uninspired and way too long, but that is another story. The key thought here is that said rapper insulted so many people during his rambling and this includes every voter and supporter of the AfD, the German national (not nationalist, not radical) party. I write this as somebody who has never voted for the AfD by the way. He called them explicitly full-blown idiots and implicitly worse things where you could easily make the connection. The irony of this is that ZDF, the big broadcasting station behind this event, is among those that literally force people (almost every single one except blind people) to pay roughly 20 bucks each and every month, so approximately 250 bucks per year, and if you refuse to do so, then the police will come and raid your place or you will be taken to court. Or both. Even if you do not watch these channels. And as there is constant hatred against the AfD (Alternative for Germany) supporters on this channel and the others who make people pay said money, it is safe to say that especially those people are not watching ZDF and the others. Still, there is no way they don't have to pay. The utter hypocrisy thus is that they are forced to pay this money and then even get insulted during live television. Unbelievable. This is a scandal in terms of dimensions that this event should really be discontinued. Instead, you hear applause where this was held, no apology from ZDF, no consequences for Danger Dan or whatever the rapper is named. What times are we living in when stuff like this happens on live television and comes from those people who always say they are all about tolerance and love? Unreal. The one DD honored was a pianist named Igor Levit. Needless to say that Levit also did not stand up against this hatred and they will probably invite him back for future events. What a travesty! This happening is a key reason why despite some positive factors I can only give one star out of five here overall.
What was good? The idea of letting the artists perform and then hand them their awards was not bad. I generally criticize these shows for having too many music numbers, especially the American ones, but here it was tolerable. It was still too much when they had some perform two numbers even. I am also not sad there was no competitive element. No nominees and one winner is announced, but the winners were all determined before already and they knew they would win. And perform. So the general concept is alright. The flaws were still much more frequent: Levit I mentioned already. He was also awful from another perspective. The artistic aspect. If you compare Einaudi's early piano performance to Levit's, then honestly the difference in class could not be any bigger. Makes me think that Levit is really only known because of what he has to say in terms of politics. Very fitting that ZDF also once again got in some Böhmermann propaganda hailing him as some kind of icon on television when truth is he does nothing but spit hatred. But I mean I am not surprised. If they did not mention him all the time, probably nobody would be watching his show anymore at all. Ratings are as low as it gets I heard. On the other hand, it is also a bit sad that somebody like Einaudi who has a body of work that includes scoring Nomadland for example would agree to be a part of this show that evening. So was Moby, but at least he only recorded a video message and elaborated briefly on why classical music is very much worth listening to and that was okay. Glad he was not there. I agree with him, I like going to classical concerts as well.
On a more positive note, I must also mention Lea Desandre. What a voice for such a young and small person. Very pretty too and I would have preferred her not to be a part of this show too. Another somewhat attractive part of the evening was harpist Magdalena Hoffmann. Her performance was good, but her slight comment about how the older man she played with got a little bit too touchy was really offensive and off the mark. The way she got her minor #metoo moment felt really unlikable and I felt sorry for the guy who had to explain as a consequence that his wife is in the audience. Speaking of beautiful, but unlikable, the host of this event was Désirée Nosbusch. I remember she was once really pretty, but honestly she has zero entertainment value. I think I read Gottschalk hosted this show when it was newly introduced, which was not too long ago in fact, and like him or not, he is always somewhat entertaining. Nosbusch, on the other hand, was gloating about greatness, beautiful metaphors, asking us if we could feel how wonderful it all is etc.. but nothing seemed real, authentic or spontaneous. Like the blandest pre-recorded performance you could imagine. In other words, she is exactly the right person to keep hosting this ZDF show for decades to come then maybe. Right what they need to further dumb down people. She also brought zero comedy. They had a guy from the heute show for that of course. Big shocker. He was just as bad and his jokes about how annoying he is could not be any more correct. Like in a way that he should not be let in front of any camera. The tuba or trombones (or whatever it was) players were clearly also a bit embarrassed to join in with him, in the prerecorded video, but also when he made obvious what he thought of their band name. But he was also pretty bad in the opening of the show already, even if nobody matches Claudia Roth in terms of being annoying.
This is really the worst that this person is in charge of the ministry of culture here in Germany. Her supposedly funny talking at the very start about how she is actually a good singer was already difficult to watch, but when she came and held a laudatio in the most exaggerated manner possible in terms of both body language and words, this show was just hitting a new low altogether. Her little sneaky comment directed at (once again AfD) politicians was something she herself should remember in the future. Honestly, this is a politician who demonstrated with a left-wing group that are considered terrorists in other countries and not 30 years ago and who talked about how she wants Germany abolished and how can she be a minister at all and represent and hold speeches at an event like this? This really takes all credibility away if there ever was any. I don't care about her hair, clothes or whatever that she is mocked for sometimes. This is also not right. But her past and also her present are just a total disgrace, so her inclusion here (twice) was the second biggest scandal right after the insults I elaborated on early on. Oh yeah, the trophy is a tuning fork made of wood apparently. This was about sustainability then as Nosbusch did not forget to tell us on one occasion. I mean prestige there is none to this award with what the show looked like, but it is good purpose that they can then burn the award when maybe next winter everybody has to freeze here because of blind German foreign politics. Needless to say that they also made this a political ceremony as much as they could. The lifetime achievement award was given to an Ukrainian, climate change was an issue, most winners were not German or if they were, they had roots in other countries etc. I mean they were not bad (except Levit), but also not always on a level where I would consider them best of the year the way ZDF wanted us to believe. The child choir in the end was cute, but the singing was something I heard at schools on the same level. Jonas Kaufmann was cringeworthy to watch with how hard he tried to be likable and funny. Fitting he also had a little video snippet together with the heute-show guy. That is all. You get it. This show was a catastrophe and I highly suggest you skip the watch. Will be forgotten so quickly.
But this is the past now. Let's look at the now. Why am I even making this reference? Well, I did for you to better understand things in the context as a whole. This ceremony had a similar critical moment. We had another rapper this time who did not win, but held a speech to introduce a winner. Said speech was so unfunny, uncreative and uninspired and way too long, but that is another story. The key thought here is that said rapper insulted so many people during his rambling and this includes every voter and supporter of the AfD, the German national (not nationalist, not radical) party. I write this as somebody who has never voted for the AfD by the way. He called them explicitly full-blown idiots and implicitly worse things where you could easily make the connection. The irony of this is that ZDF, the big broadcasting station behind this event, is among those that literally force people (almost every single one except blind people) to pay roughly 20 bucks each and every month, so approximately 250 bucks per year, and if you refuse to do so, then the police will come and raid your place or you will be taken to court. Or both. Even if you do not watch these channels. And as there is constant hatred against the AfD (Alternative for Germany) supporters on this channel and the others who make people pay said money, it is safe to say that especially those people are not watching ZDF and the others. Still, there is no way they don't have to pay. The utter hypocrisy thus is that they are forced to pay this money and then even get insulted during live television. Unbelievable. This is a scandal in terms of dimensions that this event should really be discontinued. Instead, you hear applause where this was held, no apology from ZDF, no consequences for Danger Dan or whatever the rapper is named. What times are we living in when stuff like this happens on live television and comes from those people who always say they are all about tolerance and love? Unreal. The one DD honored was a pianist named Igor Levit. Needless to say that Levit also did not stand up against this hatred and they will probably invite him back for future events. What a travesty! This happening is a key reason why despite some positive factors I can only give one star out of five here overall.
What was good? The idea of letting the artists perform and then hand them their awards was not bad. I generally criticize these shows for having too many music numbers, especially the American ones, but here it was tolerable. It was still too much when they had some perform two numbers even. I am also not sad there was no competitive element. No nominees and one winner is announced, but the winners were all determined before already and they knew they would win. And perform. So the general concept is alright. The flaws were still much more frequent: Levit I mentioned already. He was also awful from another perspective. The artistic aspect. If you compare Einaudi's early piano performance to Levit's, then honestly the difference in class could not be any bigger. Makes me think that Levit is really only known because of what he has to say in terms of politics. Very fitting that ZDF also once again got in some Böhmermann propaganda hailing him as some kind of icon on television when truth is he does nothing but spit hatred. But I mean I am not surprised. If they did not mention him all the time, probably nobody would be watching his show anymore at all. Ratings are as low as it gets I heard. On the other hand, it is also a bit sad that somebody like Einaudi who has a body of work that includes scoring Nomadland for example would agree to be a part of this show that evening. So was Moby, but at least he only recorded a video message and elaborated briefly on why classical music is very much worth listening to and that was okay. Glad he was not there. I agree with him, I like going to classical concerts as well.
On a more positive note, I must also mention Lea Desandre. What a voice for such a young and small person. Very pretty too and I would have preferred her not to be a part of this show too. Another somewhat attractive part of the evening was harpist Magdalena Hoffmann. Her performance was good, but her slight comment about how the older man she played with got a little bit too touchy was really offensive and off the mark. The way she got her minor #metoo moment felt really unlikable and I felt sorry for the guy who had to explain as a consequence that his wife is in the audience. Speaking of beautiful, but unlikable, the host of this event was Désirée Nosbusch. I remember she was once really pretty, but honestly she has zero entertainment value. I think I read Gottschalk hosted this show when it was newly introduced, which was not too long ago in fact, and like him or not, he is always somewhat entertaining. Nosbusch, on the other hand, was gloating about greatness, beautiful metaphors, asking us if we could feel how wonderful it all is etc.. but nothing seemed real, authentic or spontaneous. Like the blandest pre-recorded performance you could imagine. In other words, she is exactly the right person to keep hosting this ZDF show for decades to come then maybe. Right what they need to further dumb down people. She also brought zero comedy. They had a guy from the heute show for that of course. Big shocker. He was just as bad and his jokes about how annoying he is could not be any more correct. Like in a way that he should not be let in front of any camera. The tuba or trombones (or whatever it was) players were clearly also a bit embarrassed to join in with him, in the prerecorded video, but also when he made obvious what he thought of their band name. But he was also pretty bad in the opening of the show already, even if nobody matches Claudia Roth in terms of being annoying.
This is really the worst that this person is in charge of the ministry of culture here in Germany. Her supposedly funny talking at the very start about how she is actually a good singer was already difficult to watch, but when she came and held a laudatio in the most exaggerated manner possible in terms of both body language and words, this show was just hitting a new low altogether. Her little sneaky comment directed at (once again AfD) politicians was something she herself should remember in the future. Honestly, this is a politician who demonstrated with a left-wing group that are considered terrorists in other countries and not 30 years ago and who talked about how she wants Germany abolished and how can she be a minister at all and represent and hold speeches at an event like this? This really takes all credibility away if there ever was any. I don't care about her hair, clothes or whatever that she is mocked for sometimes. This is also not right. But her past and also her present are just a total disgrace, so her inclusion here (twice) was the second biggest scandal right after the insults I elaborated on early on. Oh yeah, the trophy is a tuning fork made of wood apparently. This was about sustainability then as Nosbusch did not forget to tell us on one occasion. I mean prestige there is none to this award with what the show looked like, but it is good purpose that they can then burn the award when maybe next winter everybody has to freeze here because of blind German foreign politics. Needless to say that they also made this a political ceremony as much as they could. The lifetime achievement award was given to an Ukrainian, climate change was an issue, most winners were not German or if they were, they had roots in other countries etc. I mean they were not bad (except Levit), but also not always on a level where I would consider them best of the year the way ZDF wanted us to believe. The child choir in the end was cute, but the singing was something I heard at schools on the same level. Jonas Kaufmann was cringeworthy to watch with how hard he tried to be likable and funny. Fitting he also had a little video snippet together with the heute-show guy. That is all. You get it. This show was a catastrophe and I highly suggest you skip the watch. Will be forgotten so quickly.