Headless Chickens
The Deutsche Oper in west Berlin announced on Monday it was cancelling four performances of Idomeneo over concerns they could enrage Muslims and pose a security risk.
“We know the consequences of the conflict over the (Muhammad) caricatures,” the opera company said in a statement.
“We believe that needs to be taken very seriously and hope for your support.”
The opera was staged in Berlin in 2003 and drew criticism over a scene where the king presents the heads of Greek sea god Poseidon, Muhammad, Jesus and Buddha.
According to the director, Kirsten Harms, security officials had now warned of possible problems if the production went ahead, and that it was in the best interests of performers and opera-goers to cancel it.
This has led to widespread condemnation from German politicians with Berlin’s mayor, Klaus Wowereit, saying the director had made the wrong decision to scrap the production.
“Our ideas about openness, tolerance and freedom must be lived out on the offensive,” he told the Associated Press.
“Voluntary self-limitation gives those who fight against our values a confirmation in advance that we will not stand behind them.”
Deputy parliamentary speaker Wolfgang Thierse said the decision a new threat to free artistic expression in Germany.
“Has it come so far that we must limit artistic expression?” he told Reuters. “What will be next?”
And German chancellor, Angela Merkel, urged Germans not to bow to fears of Islamic violence
“I think the cancellation was a mistake. I think self-censorship does not help us against people who want to practise violence in the name of Islam,” she told reporters. “It makes no sense to retreat.”
The decision to cancel was taken before any protests had materialised and a number of analysts are now pointing out that a climate is developing n which people are afraid to speak out publicly.
In a speech to the annual conference of think-tank Oxford Analytica last week, its head, David Young, said political correctness posed a threat to free expression for journalists, politicians and academics alike.
Nirjay Mahindru, an Asian playwright who runs a theatre company in Britain, told Reuters: “British Asian writers are without a shadow of a doubt not writing what they want to write about or what they feel is reflective of what is out there. They are writing what is now expected of them.”
“This has been going on for at least two or three years and it’s almost like a coalition of fundamentalist forces, whether they are Christian or Muslim or Hindu or whoever. I just wish more members of the artistic community would be brave.”
(Thanks to Klaus for the heads up)
Wednesday 27 Sep 2006 | Paul | Germany
Most people and newspapers in Germany criticize the cancellation of this Mozart opera, incl. representatives of Muslim organizations.
Now 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. Without this fuss about cancellation, nobody would care to see this silly artsy-fartsy opera. Now it is a must-see to show that we do not surrender to “Islamofascism.”
I think I am in a very small minority who approved of the cancellation. That opera is an insult to other religions (since it also shows the severed heads of Jesus and Buddha) as well and to Mozart, the composer, himself.
Anyway, 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.
My analogy: People can call me coward all day, but I don’t get intimidated. I am not doing something I don’t want to do just to prove to someone that I am not a coward. Well, I did that in kindergarten and elementary school, but now I am more confident and don’t feel I have to prove anything to anyone. Jesus, what a hero I am.
Is this opera helping us? No, 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.
I think we should criticize the Arab world all day on how they treat women, violate human rights, lack democracy, have too much corruption, etc etc. And we should lecture them all day that they should make peace with Israel, that they should spend their money education rather than military, that they should save Darfur, that they need economic reforms etc etc. Since nobody likes to be attacked, criticized and lectured on every issue, we should avoid making fun of their Prophet of defaming their Prophet. Rather we should focus on the topics that matter. That’s not appeasement, but about focusing on what is important and it is about setting priorities.
Though, as I said: I am in the minority on this one. Most Germans criticized the cancellation of the opera. It was the opera house who decided to cancel the show. Not the federal or the city government. If (!) the government had told the opera show to cancel the show, then I would be critical and complain about strangeling free speech and about unacceptable government intervention into the arts. But that was not the case.
Let’s not forget that Muslims are not the only religious group who dislikes controversial art:
This is from Oct 23, 1998: “Last May, William Donohue, the ever-vigilant president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, raised quite a ruckus about the fact that Corpus Christi, Terrence McNally’s play-in-progress, featured a gay, Christ-like protagonist who has sex, off-stage, with his male disciples. Donohue, who has a gift for strained analogies that rivals McNally’s own, has called the play “hate speech,” “bigotry,” and of course “blasphemy.” He has argued that a similar depiction of a black or Jewish religious figure would be roundly condemned. Only Catholics and their beliefs, Donohue insists, are held up to such ridicule.”
Long article here:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1252/is_n18_v125/ai_21273530
Yeah, yeah, this only happens to Catholics…. Right! And some Jews say those kind of attacks only happen to Jews. And some Muslims say those things only happen to Muslims
The play was then shown after all. And probably the Idomeneo opera will be shown as well soon. They certainly got a lot of publicity. More than this opera house would usually get. Usually hardly anybody would be interested in that opera, but now it is the talk of the town.
“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.” A week later, after counter-demonstrations by a roster of well-known contemporary playwrights, the play was reinstated at MTC. Although the Catholic League’s president had not read the play, reports claiming that it depicted a gay Jesus-like figure who has sex with his apostles was enough to ignite a series of events that captured the attention of New Yorkers, theatre artists and others, perhaps to a greater extent than McNally’s play itself. On opening night, two separate demonstrations took place concurrently on opposite ends of the block outside the theater.”
http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/theatre_journal/v051/51.2pr_mcnally.html
The same play was shown in Germany, but then cancelled after death threats and bomb threats.
So your argument for cancelling this is that it would hurt interreligious relations and generally be an unnecessary insult?
Think about this: They cancel their play out of fear of Muslims, and people everywhere quite understandably get pissed off about that. Their anger turns towards said Muslims. The newspapers’ letter pages are already running over with letters indignant about this and negative toward Islam. Interreligious relations are hurt.
So in fact, cancelling the play because of hypothetical threats has provoked anger toward Muslims.
interestingly…
Symptomatic of the split between Muslims in Europe and in the Middle East. As with the Muhammed controversy, reactions in Europe were far more subdued, if not non-existant, than in the Middle East. Only, the same 200 London idiots that got famous last time with their call for ‘Europe’s 9-11′ did it again with the cathedral happening.