From Mozart To Muslims

You have got to be kidding me, this is about as pathetic as it gets.

The now-cancelled production of Mozart's opera, directed by provocateur Hans Neuenfels, includes a scene in which King Idomeneo is shown staggering on stage next to the severed heads of Buddha, Jesus, Poseidon and the Prophet Mohammad, which sit on chairs. It was an equal-opportunity insult of religions. But it doesn't matter. When Mohammed is insulted, you know the consequences.

Germany is simply going to dismiss Mozart, or some portion of his work, as it might offend immigrant Muslims? Between the EU and so many european countries erasing european culture to kowtow to Muslims, in a decade, there won't be a Europe ... perhaps they'll call it Europistan.

As someone of German heritage, it's sad to see how far down Germany has gone. Stick a fork in the Huns, they're done.

Comments

[coconuttree]

Dan,that's the way things go. Ask the Indians.

[Nick J.]

Personally, I always thought that Krystalnacht and the Holocaust were tied for the utter nadir of German civilization. But hey, cancelling a Mozart concert is quite the outrage too, I guess. Different strokes for different folks.

[Nikki]

You DO understand that the opera was cancelled because of the director's interpretation and not that it was Mozart, right? I mean, Mozart didn't create the scene that offended folks, the director did. You understand that. Right?

[jaed]

Oh, but Mozart wasn't the one who actually put in the part about the severed head of Mohammed. That makes it perfectly all right to cancel an opera production out of fear of jihadist reaction. Nothing to see here - move along!

Sheesh.

[Chuck the Lucky]

People (like me) who are critical of organized religions and/or religious thinking in general ought to be particularly offended because that seems to be the message that the symbolism is trying to express (reject/decapitate organized religion). Unfortunately, a large majority of non religious people (though not as large a chunk as you might think) are deep in BDS country and can't see Islamic fundi types as the far greater threat.

The other religions whose heads featured in the scene would be justified in some resentment due to the knowledge that if Mohamed's head were absent this would not have been an issue (even though Jesus and Moses were supposed to be prophets too according to Islam). Bending over backwards for the violent guys and extend none of the same luxuries to the rest makes for a system which rewards violence.

[Josh in Berlin]

It seems that the cancellation will be revoked and this opera will be shown after all. What a great and shrewd publicity stunt the opera house made by first announcing the cancellation. Usually hardly anybody would be interested in that opera, but now it is the talk of the town.

I think I am in a very small minority in Germany who approved of the cancellation. That opera is an insult to other religions (since it shows the severed heads of Jesus and Buddha as well) and to Mozart, the composer, himself.

What benefit would we get if we had this opera? It seems the only reason to defend this stupid opera is to avoid giving the impression of appeasement to the Islamofascists. That's not enough for me. I think this opera would only strengthen Islamofasicsm since it would help their propaganda. To win the war on terrorism, we need to have moderate Muslims on our side, so that they don't support the terrorists, but give us information about them. And we want the moderate Muslims to win over their autocratic governments and fundamentalist groups in the Arab world. This opera, however, alienates the moderate Muslims and helps the fundamentalists.

Let's not forget that theater plays critical of Christians and Israel also get canceled. Earlier this year:
"A New York theatre company has put off plans to stage a play about an American activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza because of the current "political climate" - a decision the play's British director, Alan Rickman, denounced as "censorship"."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/theatre-gets-stagefright-over-play-on-israeli-death-of-activist/2006/02/28/1141095740986.html

"On May 23, 1998, the New York Times announced that the Manhattan Theatre Club would be canceling its scheduled production of playwright Terrence McNally's newest play, Corpus Christi, due to bomb and death threats made against the theatre, its personnel, and the playwright. The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights disavowed responsibility for the threats but did publicly applaud the decision, calling the play "blasphemous.""
http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/theatre_journal/v051/51.2pr_mcnally.html

When Corpus Christi was shown in Germany in 2000, there have been death threats and bomb threats as well:
http://www.cityinfonetz.de/tagblatt/thema/thema39/

Thus it could very well be that the threats against the "Idomeneo" opera are not only coming from Muslims, but from Christians, who don't like to see the severed head of Jesus... Having said that: The concern about attacks from Muslims is bigger.

Greetings from Berlin,
My blog: The Atlantic Review, A press digest on transatlantic affairs edited by three German Fulbright Alumni