The New York Times tells of the ongoing uproar over a Mohammed-bashing production of Idomeneo at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. Various German notables — everyone from Wagner-loving Chancellor Merkel to Mehmet Yildrim, the secretary-general of the Turkish-Islamic Union — are decrying the Deutsche Oper's decision to cancel Hans Neuenfels's staging, which is in the shock-schlock tradition of the rotting-rabbit Parsifal and the Osama bin Laden version of The Nose. Paul Moor, writing up the affair in the subscription-only Musical America, reports that a few days ago the Deutsche Oper sent e-mails to journalists asking them to keep quiet about the cancellation — an offensive request that only fueled the frenzy. Moor adds: "Hans Neuenfels, a leading figure on central Europe's Regieoper scene, has a reputation for provoking audiences; he outraged Salzburg Festival audiences, for instance, by introducing such anachronistic folkways as cocaine-snorting into that most Viennese of operettas Die Fledermaus. His Idomeneo staging ... ended with the depositing upon four straight chairs lined up downstage of the decapitated heads of four of history's gods: Poseidon (a.k.a. Neptune, part and parcel of this opera's plot), Jesus, Buddha, and ... Mohammed." The situation is idiotic to the core, but, yes, Neuenfels must be defended; millions have died fighting for democracy so he can put his pap onstage. Let's hope the scandal progresses to the point where President Bush speaks in defense of Neuenfels's cocaine deconstructions.
It is worth noting that Neuenfels's notion of using opera to send petty polemical messages betrays the great dream of reconciliation that is at the heart of Mozart's work. Consider what Pasha Selim says toward the end of The Abduction from the Seraglio, as he foregoes the vengeance that is rightly his:
SELIM: Now, are you trembling, are you ready for your sentence?
BELMONTE: Yes, Pasha, vent your rage on me.
SELIM: You are mistaken. I despised your father far too much ever to be able to follow his example. Believe me, it is a greater pleasure to repay with good deeds an injustice suffered, than to punish evil with evil. Take your freedom, take Constanze and be more humane than your father.
I believe the stars conspire
to oblige me, in spite of myself,
to become cruel.
No; they shall not have this satisfaction.
My virtue has already
pledged itself to continue the contest.
Let us see, which is more constant,
the treachery of others
or my mercy.
