Althouse: "An up-and-coming baritone singer alleges he was drugged and violently raped in 2010 by two of opera/classical music’s shining stars, David Daniels and Scott Walters."

August 22, 2018

"An up-and-coming baritone singer alleges he was drugged and violently raped in 2010 by two of opera/classical music’s shining stars, David Daniels and Scott Walters."

"Daniels, 52, the most famous countertenor in the world, has been a favorite of the Metropolitan Opera, while his now-husband Walters, 36, is a respected conductor. The couple is so highly regarded that they were married in 2014 by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Samuel Schultz claims that in 2010, the same couple drugged and raped him following a performance in Texas, leaving him unconscious. He claims that he awoke the next afternoon in a strange bed, disoriented, in pain and bleeding from the rectum."

Reports The Daily News.

50 comments:

richlb said...: MeToo is really going to be tested, and probably tossed away, in the coming months. The Asia Argento story, the Keith Ellison story, and now this. Al Franken is really going to feel unloved after Dems line up to defend these people and not him. To be honest, Al, it's all about timing. You were too early to the big Democrat counter-reveal. If those photos came up today you'd be set!

Bill Cosby gets a left-leaning pair to commiserate with, at least.; 8/22/18, 10:01 AM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/22/18, 10:07 AM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: No police report. No reason to believe him.; 8/22/18, 10:07 AM
madAsHell said...: He claims that he awoke the next afternoon in a strange bed, disoriented, in pain and bleeding from the rectum.

Wasn't this the first episode of South Park?; 8/22/18, 10:08 AM
Jim said...: More like Bargain Counter-Tenor. With apologies to PDQ Bach.; 8/22/18, 10:10 AM
Bob Boyd said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/22/18, 10:10 AM
Oso Negro said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/22/18, 10:16 AM
Oso Negro said...: It seems we can assume everyone in show business is rapey.; 8/22/18, 10:17 AM
Kevin said...: Uh oh, between this and the James Levine disaster I'm afraid the Met is going to start purging operas from its priceless video and audio library. The loss to history would be staggering, especially since James Levine had his fingers in virtually everything since the new Met opened (no pun intended).

Losing that Giulio Cesare production alone would be great tragedy. It was brilliantly entertaining. And Natalie Dessay doesn't perform opera anymore so losing that video would be a huge blow to the record of her operatic body of work. All I can do it hope that cooler heads prevail.; 8/22/18, 10:18 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: An up-and-coming baritone singer...

Apparently he wasn't the only one who was up and coming...; 8/22/18, 10:20 AM
Wince said...: An up-and-coming baritone singer alleges he was drugged and violently raped in 2010 by two of opera/classical music’s shining stars, David Daniels and Scott Walters.

Your Honor, my clients merely wanted to test the young man's vocal range and his ability to sing castrato.

Countertenor range: The countertenor is the highest male voice. Many countertenor singers perform roles originally written for a castrato in baroque operas.; 8/22/18, 10:22 AM
gspencer said...: Big Opera has a Big Catholic Church problem. Who knew?; 8/22/18, 10:22 AM
Kevin said...: It seems we can assume everyone in show business is rapey.

Breaking News from 1920.; 8/22/18, 10:23 AM
gspencer said...: The couple that rapes together stays together. "It's a hobby we both enjoy."; 8/22/18, 10:34 AM
rhhardin said...: Countertenors are a poor substitute for castrati. Someday perhaps we'll get the music on the original instrument again. Also castrati behave better.; 8/22/18, 10:35 AM
Fernandinande said...: So much for the stereotype that all operatic sex maniacs are homosexuals.; 8/22/18, 10:44 AM
Birkel said...: It is possible to prove an injury long after the events in question. A competent doctor can examine the accuser and determine if there was an injury.

Tying that particular injury to a particular event is more difficult, of course, if there were multiple occasions on which this accuser might have been injured in such a way.

And he might have sought medical help if the injuries were severe enough, even if he didn't want to admit the attack to the police and wider public.; 8/22/18, 10:47 AM
William said...: Enrico Caruso was arrested for pinching the buttocks of a married woman in the monkey house at Central Park Zoo. He claimed that it was a monkey who did the pinching. Nonetheless, he was found guilty and fined ten dollars. He was fortunate that he did not live in the #metoo era as his career would have been finished. But it's a mixed bag. If he had lived in the era of modern sound recordings, he would have been much wealthier and could have afforded enough money to pay the monkey to take the fall.; 8/22/18, 10:50 AM
William said...: Sex scandals are more scandalous when they involve artists in the classical music category than in the rap field. In the rap field a sex scandal is a career enhancer.; 8/22/18, 10:52 AM
Fernandinande said...: pay the monkey to take the fall.

They work for peanuts.; 8/22/18, 11:10 AM
richlb said...: I don't care, as long as this scandal doesn't involve my favorite opera singer, Enrico Pallazzo.; 8/22/18, 11:10 AM
Darrell said...: Buggery, he said. . .; 8/22/18, 11:15 AM
Darrell said...: Oh, Sorrow Mio. .. . .; 8/22/18, 11:33 AM
tcrosse said...: Don't send a boy to do a woman's job:
How the Brits do it; 8/22/18, 11:39 AM
Leland said...: It looks like a local rape story, why would people be interested in this? A claim from 2010 will have little evidence still available to be collected. Will Ginsburg face impeachment over her role in this? Should we be asking, what did she know, and when did she know it? Won't she just answer, like our last President, "I heard about it in the news, just like you did".; 8/22/18, 11:42 AM
n.n said...: Transgender couplets and Choice. Social progress.; 8/22/18, 12:27 PM
Caroline said...: If only Opera Stars could marry.; 8/22/18, 12:37 PM
Ralph L said...: Connolly is a more convincing man than most trouser-rollers, though the costume is a little big for her (the fat guy must have stretched it). Females don't wear their medals on the opposite side from men, however.; 8/22/18, 12:49 PM
Trumpit said...: For every penetration there is an equal and opposite insertion. - Larry Flintstone's 3rd Law of Intercourse.; 8/22/18, 12:59 PM
buwaya said...: These fellows are backed by the same opera-world funders that threatened Andrea Bocelli to keep him from singing at the Trump inaugural. And lots of people, no doubt, that knew of cases like this. And who knows how much worse - like James Levine, the homosexual pedophile conductor of the Metropolitan Opera.

There are plenty of other cases that have not yet emerged.

Opera is part of the modern aristo-haut bourgeois world, and shares in the same degeneracy and decadence. These are the earthly manifestations of Ephesians 6:12, the "spiritual wickedness in high places". It is distressing that so much of the most beautiful of the works of mankind are controlled and perverted by the demon-possessed.

I think the Euros may be better off in terms of moral standards on these things. The center of the infection is certainly New York.; 8/22/18, 1:31 PM
Temujin said...: The Notorious RBG. When those connected souls in the the Upper East Side need more than just a justice (of the peace).; 8/22/18, 2:42 PM
tcrosse said...: I just flashed on Gordon Liddy saying that John Dean was "Fully qualified to sing the title role in 'Der Rosenkavalier.'" ...; 8/22/18, 2:51 PM
Bob Loblaw said...: I don't understand why people like this just keep on keepin' on. If I was drugged and raped by two guys I'd kill them. He didn't tell anyone because he was "frightened of repercussions"?; 8/22/18, 3:21 PM
Sebastian said...: Am I to believe that two gay men might have committed a sexual transgression? Say it ain't so.; 8/22/18, 3:27 PM
PM said...: Men have a lot of challenges, but none bigger than the little head telling the big head what to do.; 8/22/18, 3:40 PM
Robert Cook said...: "Am I to believe that two gay men might have committed a sexual transgression? Say it ain't so."

Do you meant to insinuate that gay men are more likely than straight men to commit sexual transgressions, more likely to force themselves on others? Or do you mean to say that gay sex is itself a sexual transgression by definition?; 8/22/18, 4:00 PM
Grant said...: That production of Giulio Cesare was the finest and most memorable show I’ve ever seen. But artists, whatever the quality of their work, are certainly no better than other people. Often, they’re worse.; 8/22/18, 4:36 PM
hawkeyedjb said...: I just knew Scott Walters was unfit to be governor of Wisconsin! First Act 10, now this.; 8/22/18, 4:50 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: "bleeding from his 'back-hole'
FIFY; 8/22/18, 5:26 PM
D 2 said...: Someone upthread noted the possible archival purging to come, if the story is true. Hmm. Now there's an interesting thought.

Just like old POW cemetery markers, it's the only right thing for right thinking people to demand. Somebody will say it, eventually. Might as well get it over with.

So: Into the fire with all of it. The recordings, the films, the art. Gone. Met performances, The Usual Suspects, Chinatown, Shakespeare in Love, Louis CK recordings, SNL skits with Franken. It is too problematic for some to have to suffer, with the taint of the criminal imbued in the mix of the product. At the very least, a local city ordinance (for progressive cities) identifying that such works cannot be shown for commercial profit. Zone it away. Push the filth of rapists and abusers underground.

Wait, what? It's different?

(That's sarcasm, obv, but it reminds me of some old forgotten movie or tv clip where the protagonist said that the thing about America that worried him was that if his nation ever chose to turn to communism/fascism, it would be horrible to see, cause America - when it does something - goes All in. I can't remember the scene - or if it was maybe a documentary. Hopefully it didn't involve anyone engaged in sexual abuse.; 8/22/18, 5:42 PM
rcocean said...: Forget it Jake, its Gay Chinatown.

Otherwise known as Opera.; 8/22/18, 6:40 PM
LakeLevel said...: Cookie: "Do you meant to insinuate that gay men are more likely than straight men to commit sexual transgressions"

and here we see another way the left lie, the straw man. No cookie, he was implying that one of the current protected classes can never be accused of any wrong doing and must be worshiped as being better than white males. See illegal aliens, sorry "undocumented immigrants.; 8/22/18, 7:30 PM
tcrosse said...: Anyway, the fat guy is not so particularly good in that role. There are may women and men who can do it better. You can look it up. Whether any of them leave their victims bleeding out the ass, I leave to others to determine.
Here's how the Danes do it; 8/22/18, 8:43 PM
JMW Turner said...: Yeah, this is fucking gay.; 8/22/18, 9:37 PM
Ralph L said...: tcrosse, that's so transgressive. The guy wearing the makeup and funky yellow clothes is the butch one.; 8/22/18, 9:40 PM
tcrosse said...: tcrosse, that's so transgressive. The guy wearing the makeup and funky yellow clothes is the butch one.

At least he's wearing the fruit salad on the correct side of his blouse.; 8/22/18, 9:49 PM
Ken B said...: Giulio Cesare is the greatest grab bag of melodies there is. But there are better performances aplenty. William Christie or Rene Jacobs for choice.; 8/22/18, 10:08 PM
iowan2 said...: Do you meant to insinuate that gay men are more likely than straight men to commit sexual transgressions, more likely to force themselves on others? Or do you mean to say that gay sex is itself a sexual transgression by definition?

I have been told by my betters, that all sex is rape, Male initiated sex. So yes the elites do say that homosexual men are rapists. And I am in no position to question my betters. I'm an irredeemable deplorable, red neck bigot, Trump voter,bitter clinger,and a dozen more pigeon holes I've been stuck in by people that wouldn't know me if the met me.; 8/22/18, 10:54 PM
Annie said...: Cook, in the Catholic Church it is most certainly true. Most of those abused were boys. Most had already gone through puberty. I'd be willing to bet it's pretty bad in the entertainment business as well.; 8/23/18, 1:56 AM
Professional lady said...: In my subscription line-up for the next season, is Vivaldi's "Gloria" with David Daniels as a soloist. Don't know what will happen re Daniels, but thinking about homosexual rape throughout the piece is not going to enhance the experience. I've seen him in a performance of Julius Caesar - it was a bit disappointing. Both my husband and I thought he came off better in his recordings.; 8/23/18, 6:35 AM