Amateur Megalomania

To be fair, Mozart’s Idomeneo had been altered beyond the scope of Mozart’s intent in this particular presentation.

In the staging, which sparked audience protests during its premiere in December 2003, King Idomeneo presents the lopped-off heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and the Prophet Mohammed and displays them on four chairs.

German critics saw the show at the time as a radical attack on religion and religious wars.

Certainly there is enough here to offend just about anyone…which is exactly the kind of thing we value in the West.

Unless you fear Muslims.

Berlin’s Deutsche Oper has removed the provocative staging of a Mozart opera from its schedule for fear of enraging Muslims, the opera house said in a statement.

One of three opera houses in the German capital, it canceled director Hans Neuenfels’s production of “Idomeneo”, a 1781 drama set in ancient Crete, because authorities warned it could present an “incalculable security risk”.

Note the absent threats from Christians, Buddhists, and as my brother put it, people from Atlantis.When my children threaten to throw a tantrum, I’m not in the habit of avoiding whatever situation might have triggered the tantrum. Yet this is precisely what we seem to be doing in the West.

(h/t – Mark Wiley, by email)

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