The Playgoer: Idomoneo still on hold

Custom Search

Friday, October 06, 2006

Idomoneo still on hold

From today's Arts, Briefly:

The city government of Berlin said yesterday that it would soon reassess the security risks surrounding the Deutsche Oper production of Mozart’s “Idomeneo,” canceled last month for fear of outraging Muslims, The Associated Press reported. “The risk assessment will happen soon,” said Tatjana Pohl, a spokeswoman for the Berlin state interior ministry. She declined to specify the timing, but said a security plan would be drawn up if the opera company decided to reschedule the production, featuring a scene involving the severed heads of Jesus, Muhammad and Buddha. Alexander Busche, a spokesman for the Deutsche Oper, said it was waiting for the risk assessment and said that even with new assurances of safety, the opera could not go on again before December.

You gotta wonder at some point: Would this much security be even necessary if they didn't effectively publicize the idea of danger by cancelling it in the first place? The initial threat has never been clarified or even confirmed as valid. Now, of course, they have to delay and provide extra security since all the hubbub may just be giving people ideas! People who never heard of this hoity toity opera in the first place.

1 comment:

Mike Mariano said...

I think the biggest tragedy in this controversy over Muslims and Mozart is that no one has yet used the headline: Stone Me, Amadeus.

It's what Falco would have wanted.