September 27, 2006
On the Deutsche Oper's Cancellation of Idomeneo
Signandsight translates Harald Jähner on the Deutsche Oper's cancellation of Mozart's "Idomeneo" in the Berliner Zeitung.
The Deutsche Oper demonstrates very nicely how little courage the de-sensitised public can summon for such scandals: none, to be precise. As soon as there's even a vague notion that an audience that could respond differently, that it might take offence to the action on stage, the performance gets struck from the programme. In response to the assessment by Berlin's Criminal Investigation Office that the three-year-old Neuenfels production might offend pious Muslims and could lead to reprisals, the director of the opera house, Kirsten Harms, censored herself and cancelled the performance.
This is dangerous and misguided for many reasons. First, the anticipatory obedience of the opera house director will make potential terrorists aware of what was to be seen in her house since its premiere in March of 2003: Idomeneo presenting, alongside those of Poseidon, Jesus and Buddha, the hacked-off head of Muhammad. The audience and staff of the Deutsche Oper will be far more endangered by this sudden pronouncement than they would have been by the piece itself, which thus far had not raised the ire of a single Muslim...
The sensitivity of many Muslims with respect to the Prophet and insults against him has unsettled our understanding of artistic freedom. There's an upside to that: the unsettledness has lead to a heightening. The debate on the Muhammad caricatures didn't only frighten Western artists, it also made them more aware of the effectiveness of art than they had been for a long time. What unholy fury art can release in societies that have yet to dissociate art from seriousness! For this and other reasons, cultural respect of religious feelings has grown markedly. In the midst of modern society, art accrues religion - Christianity included - as a kind of forgotten relative, viewing it with scepticism, new-found respect or animosity. [Director Hans] Neuenfels' four-fold critique of religion must be understood in this context.
Posted by Robin Varghese at 11:18 AM | Permalink
Comments
Why has no one mentioned the fact that this very opera, Mozart's Idomeneo, is currently playing in New York City?
Playing, in fact, through December 9, Levine conducting, Heppner singing.
That's the cat out of the bag then. Get your war on.
Posted by: Teju | Sep 27, 2006 5:47:37 PM
@ Teju:
In NYT it is shown without severed heads.
@ ALL:
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
So, since there have been death threats and bomb threats directed a play challenging Christianity, 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...
Greetings from Berlin,
My blog: The Atlantic Review, A press digest on transatlantic affairs edited by three German Fulbright Alumni
Posted by: Joerg | Sep 28, 2006 9:17:40 AM
Why does this clown need to use Mozart (who would have objected to at least one of the severed heads) to wage his hobbledehoy Kulturkampf against religion? Why do we need a production of an opera seria that puts anything but the music first? Mozart will outlive Neuenfels for good reason.
Posted by: Dabodius | Sep 29, 2006 5:20:24 PM
If they put Moses' head on a stake they'd be brought up on charges of anti-semitism.
Enough with the artistic freedom bullshit. It's Germany!
Gunter Grass is right, again.
Fucking hypocrisy all around. And no one calls them on it.
As far as this is concerned here's a bit on Tony Judt and the ADL.
Posted by: Seth Edenbaum | Oct 6, 2006 11:56:45 AM
"The sensitivity of many [Jews] with respect to the [Moshiach] and insults against him has unsettled our understanding of artistic freedom."
What a fucking joke
Posted by: s.e. | Oct 6, 2006 11:59:27 AM
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