Here's a story that wasn't what I assumed from the headline. The snippet on the radio said a German opera company was cancelling a performance of Mozart because of threats associated with a scene in which the head of Mohammed is brought onstage. I assumed there had been Muslim threats. No. It's the
police who warned the artists, and then they panicked themselves into cancellation:
The Deutsche Oper in Berlin said it had pulled "Idomeneo" from its fall schedule after the police warned that the staging of the opera could pose an "incalculable risk" to the performers and the audience.
Also, please note that Mohammed's head isn't the only one gone missing:
The disputed scene is not part of Mozart's 225-year-old opera, but was added as a sort of coda by the director, Hans Neuenfels. In it, the king of Crete, Idomeneo, carries the heads of Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha and Poseidon, god of the sea, onto the stage, placing each on a stool.
Got that? First, some dim modernists thought it would be "bold" to improve upon Mozart by adding a scene in which a bunch of religious figures are killed off. (So much for artistic integrity, right?) Now, adding dhimmitude to stupidity, they've thought about it and have decided maybe they're not so courageous after all . . .Muslims might get mad. To hell with the Christians, Buddhists and sons of Zeus, however, they can all stuff it as per usual --we only respect people who might possibly behead us. I can think of no greater illustration of the irrelevance of modern art. Missing the point all the way around.
