GERMANY: Deutsche Oper in Berlin stages controversial production of Mozart's 'Idomeneo'

The Berlin opera house has sparked a row by going ahead and staging a production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" containing a scene showing the severed heads of the Prophet Mohammed, Jesus and Buddha. The opera had been cancelled in October, when it was due to be shown amongst fears it could provoke Muslim violence. This caused condemnation from politicians and artists who warned Germans against bowing to fears of terrorism. The director of Deutsche Oper, Kirsten Harms was upbeat about the furore. "I think that it is a good thing that everybody is now thinking about the importance of art and the freedom of expression," Harms said. "And I think that at no-one in our society is questioning that art is allowed to use all pictures. That is something special, art is in no way politics, and is not real life." Harms said that the police had previously warned her of a possible security risk if she went ahead with the production, which had its premiere in 2003 but that the situation had changed. "There has been a new evaluation from the security agencies after we had had the discussion about all this, and they said that according to their research there is no danger," Harms, said on Monday (December 18) She said she had a responsibility to defend artistic freedom and to ensure people's safety. Police spokesman Benedikt Scherlebeck said that they had no intelligence pointing to trouble at the performance. "We are quite relaxed about this deployment, we don't have any concrete tip-offs about any planned disturbances. But we are planning the deployment so that we won't be surprised by anything, we are ready for anything, but we shall react appropriately to the occasion this evening. We are still considering it to be a cultural event, we want the guests to feel comfortable, we won't be making a high-security event out of this," said Scherlebeck as police patrolled in front of the opera house. Germany's Muslim groups stress that they had not called for the opera to be pulled, they have since been invited to attend the opera by the German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaueble, some have agreed, others have turned down the invitation. "At the time that the opera was dropped, we said that this was bowing down to the security agencies. We were against this and said that the responsibility lay with the politicians and the police," said Aiman Mazyek, General Secretary of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany. "Now we feel like we have been instrumentalised politically into going to the opera, to see a mediocre piece where tasteless things such as Prophets' heads are shown in a blood-bath, and we don't want to be part of this. Opera yes, I like going to the opera, but tastelessness no. And we want to say no clearly to using Islam as a marketing gag." The opera tells the story of the Cretan king Idomeneo and was first performed in 1782. The controversial production by director Hans Neuenfels has not been shown since mid-2004.

ITN Source | December 19, 2006

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