Opera as security risk

last updated 8 January 2015

Berlin

One of Germany’s leading opera houses has canceled a planned production over fears of Muslim protests. The Deutsche Oper said it would not put on Hans Neuenfels’ staging of Mozart’s Idomeneo, which first ran in 2003, because the show includes a scene with the severed heads of the Greek god Poseidon, Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed. After Neuenfels refused to revise the scene, Berlin security officials said the opera would present “an incalculable security risk.” German politicians of all stripes railed at the cancellation, denouncing it as “cowardice,” “censorship,” and a “capitulation” to Islamic terrorists. “Has it come so far that we must limit artistic expression?” asked deputy parliament speaker Wolfgang Thierse. “What will be next?”