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Opera open thread: Opera recommendations for Melania Trump [1]

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Date: 2025-07-26

Earlier this week, Rep. Michael Simpson (R-Idaho U. S. House District 2) proposed that the opera house at the Kennedy Center be renamed after Melania Trump, the current wife of Oval Office occupant Donald Trump (R). Walter Einenkel tells us that Simpson proposed this change as an amendment to the funding bill for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Simpson’s constituents are a little puzzled by this proposal. The editorial board of the Idaho Statesman write, in an editorial I read through Yahoo News, a question and an answer about this proposal.

Is this really what the blue-collar, working-class voters from Idaho ... are concerned about? Of course not. Naming an opera house after the [Oval Office occupant]’s wife couldn’t get more elitist. Meanwhile, talking about commitment to promoting the arts and humanities, that budget bill that he slipped this into includes a 35% cut to the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. Donald Trump, who appreciates the arts about as much as he appreciates a well-constructed sentence, wants to cut those programs altogether, so perhaps Simpson — who used to be a strong supporter of the arts and humanities — made a deal with him: Let me keep some funding for arts and humanities, and we’ll name an opera house after the first lady.

Okay, I buy that explanation.

Or maybe Simpson knows that he’s up for reelection next year, and he really, really, really wants to stay in power, so he’d better get on Trump’s good side, for fear that the president will go on a poorly worded social media tirade and then back a primary opponent against him.

Setting aside the question of what any of this has to do with the EPA, I wondered whether Simpson asked Melania if she even likes opera, or if he just assumed that this woman née Melanija Knavs likes opera because of the strong opera tradition in her native Slovenia, where she immigrated from.

Republicans are not exactly known for asking women what they think about anything. If Michael Simpson doesn’t ask a woman if she likes having pre-natal care through Planned Parenthood or any provider, would he bother to ask Melania Trump what she thinks about opera in general, or about having an opera house named after her specifically?

I’m hard-pressed to find any indication that Melania likes any opera. The best I could find is a Facebook reel from comedian Lisandra Vasquez in which she imagines Melania’s reaction to this news. By the way, the music in the reel is from Bizet’s Carmen.

But let’s suppose that Melania Trump doesn’t actually know opera but would love it if she was just introduced to the right opera. What opera would I recommend to her?

My first thought is Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven. Even in Beethoven’s time, women could do their part to fight tyranny. This classic performance is in the original German, a language Melania Trump is said to speak fluently, but the video provides subtitles in English.

x YouTube Video

Next of course I thought about Nixon in China by John Adams. First Lady Pat Nixon has a significant aria in Act II. Adams has said he would never write an opera about Donald Trump. But the monster has already appeared in The Central Park Five opera by Anthony Davis. Who knows, maybe Melania would swoon over the actor playing her husband, who likely looks better and is more physically agile than the real Donald Trump has ever been.

If Melania Trump went to the opera in Ljubljana before she came to America, most likely she would have heard operas by French, German and Italian composers, if the upcoming season is typical.

Slovenian composers like Slavko Osterc are obscure even in Slovenia. Just as Vienna imported opera composers like Cimarosa, Paisiello and Salieri, and Paris imported opera composers like Rossini, Salieri and Verdi, so too did Ljubljana import opera composers from Italy and around Europe.

I don’t have a heavy-handed point to make with this next selection, just riffing on Lisandra Vasquez’s idea that Melania would want Donald to buy her Milan. La Scala in Milan had its grand inauguration in 1778 with Antonio Salieri’s Europa Riconosciuta. Then, for the theater’s grand reopening in 2004 after years of renovation, Salieri’s underrated opera was dusted off.

x YouTube Video

The open thread question: Which operas would you recommend to Melania Trump?

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