Opera North's show will go on, but Lee Hall threatens legal action against council

Despite a reversal of the Stranded community opera, the writer wants East Riding of Yorkshire Council to retract defamatory statements

The writer in the center of a dispute over a canceled opera community that caused accusations of homophobia is considering legal action against the City, even after the North announced the Opera in a dramatic about-face to produce them.

Beached

Lee Hall, an opera featuring 280 children from a local primary school in Bridlington, was canceled by Opera North after the school and local authorities said they were concerned content production, whose central character is gay.

The decision to hold production occurs after Hall was inundated with messages of support, and after criticisms of the school after the cancellation of the series.

Hall told The Guardian that although he was relieved and happy that the opera was now moving forward, I wanted a full retraction of the Council regarding "defamatory allegations "said during the conflict were.

local authority and retracted a statement that said the work was a pedophile. The above statement by Mike Furbank, head of improvement and learning in East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said "of concern and that the offense was a character who groomed and abused children in their early days Ibiza ".

aa

Hall - the creator of Billy Elliot - ". Now or never contained a character" protested that the work was today accused the Council to question their professionalism, and said that he had a "disinformation campaign" by the board and the school, who had tried to hide the fact that he had made a bad decision. "They suggested that I was defending the indefensible," he said.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Bay Primary School said they were "delighted to announce the revisions were done with the script of the opera community Beached" that allowed the production to move forward.

• Hall said he had considered a single word of the script, changing the word "queer" to "gay" in the handful of lines that became the center of the row: "Of course I'm strange / That's why I'm gone / So if you deduce / my favorite / one boy one girl / And I'm working class / should be okay ... "

elementary school students who were about 300 participants, found that the lines were not suitable for children aged four to 11, although it would not be on stage during the scene in issue .

Opera Hall said the North had "snatched victory from the jaws of defeat." He continued: "I feel justified, but as an artistic community that expects to be treated fairly and with more respect than anyone has demonstrated here.".

Hall added that the turnaround was a "victory for collective action." He said .. "This would never have happened if all these people are not put behind me - there were thousands of ordinary people expressing their outrage at this, I think they realized this was not going to leave, I am relieved that the program will continue later, it will not be censored and given a more positive image a homosexual person. "
The scandal surrounding the decision to cancel the program showed that homophobia still exists in society, he said. "This has blown the lid off a lot of wool thought," he said. "The idea [that] being gay is somehow inappropriate for children is very old and pernicious, in my opinion. Is discrimination and can not be accepted. "

Find best price for : --Furbank----Elliot----Billy----Hall----North----Yorkshire----Riding----East----opera--