BOSTON -- Actress Vanessa Redgrave's lawsuit trial against the Boston Symphony Orchestra resumed today with the producer for a canceled 1982 performance testifying that he opposed removing her as narrator.
The breach of contract and civil rights violation case opened before U.S. District Court Judge Robert Keeton on Thursday. Redgrave claims the BSO canceled her narration of 'Oedipus Rex' because of her political beliefs.
Producer Peter Sellars told a U.S. District Court jury today there was opposition to her performance almost from the moment it was announced because of her stand in support of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
'It was a form of blacklisting. It was denying the right to perform of a given artist because of her political point of view,' he said, recalling a discussion with Thomas W. Morris, the orchestra's general manager, on whether to remove Redgrave as narrator of the Igor Stravinsky work.
'In Russia, because people have a political point of view their right to perform is withheld -- but not in the United States of America,' Sellars said.
He said the BSO especially had a responsibility to go on with the performance because it had a history of anti-semitic problems. He did not go into specifics in this morning's testimony.
But he did mention the removal of Karl Muck as conductor in World War I because of an anti-German sentiment that swept the U.S.
Sellars testified that from the morning Redgrave's performance was announced in the Boston Globe there was public opposition, specifically because of her PLO stance. In private discussions with Morris and William I. Bernell, Seiji Ozawa's artistic director, officials were worried about a movement to have the Oedipus Rex performance censured by the B'Nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League, he said.
Sellars said he considered it quite a coup to sign Redgrave for the part. 'She was the last missing link in one of the most exciting projects the Symphony had ever worked on,' he said.
Redgrave's attorney, Daniel J. Kornstein, argues that the performance was canceled after pressure from an orchestra trustee who disagreed with the actress' political views.
Symphony officials says they were afraid violence would break out at her performance and were unaware there would be a controversy until after a deal had been struck.
Redgrave was to be paid $31,000 for the concerts, to be performed April 15-17, 1982 at Boston Symphony Hall and April 21-22, 1982 at New York's Carnegie Hall. They were canceled on April 1, 1982 -- six days after her role and the production were announced.
To substitute for the 'Oedipus Rex' narration Redgrave performed 'Vanessa in Concert,' a program sponsored by the National Association of Arab-American's at Boston's Orpheum Theater.
Only 200 people attended the event in the 2,800-seat theater.
Redgrave, who appeared with Tennessee Williams and read excerpts of his works, also presented dramatic readings of Shakespeare and a dance from her movie 'Isadora.'
