EclectEcon

The production — which was also mounted by Deutsche Oper in 2003 — is intended to shock. Mozart never included the severed-heads scene. Indeed, Idomeneo's original libretto never even mentions Islam or Mohammed. But when Idomeneo, the king of Crete, breaks a vow to Poseidon and the sea god sends a monster to the island as punishment, the director of the Berlin production chose to have the title character slay the monster, then stagger on stage carrying the four heads and proclaim, "The gods are dead!"

Such post-modern revisionism of classic texts has become trite. We might well object to this one on artistic grounds. Still the decision whether to mount it or not should be left to tastes of the Deutsche Oper and its audience, rather than the possible rage of a mob. [emphasis added]

The editorial continues in a scathing tone:
he German press agency DPA said Berlin police so far had recorded no direct threat to the opera company, although one patron had passed on an anonymous concern about security. And when the company's directors asked police for a security report, police advised that the possibility of "disturbances" could "not be excluded." All of which makes the company's decision worse: It is crumpling in the face of a potential threat, not even an imminent danger.

When artists, writers, politicians and even ordinary citizens start to self-limit their basic rights to avoid provoking the irrational anger of Muslim street protestors, then rights to such things as free assembly, thought and speech become meaningless. What would Solzhenitsyn, Sharansky and Havel — men who spoke their minds in the face of totalitarian repression — think of such pusillanimity in the face of a tyrannical ideology?

Fortunately even most German politicians are disgusted with the cancellation.

Wolfgang Schaeuble, who as interior minister is Germany's top security official, told a news conference, "This is crazy ... I will not accept that there will be violence because people don't like some pictures [or images on stage]." He said non-Muslims have gone too far in accommodating Muslim sensibilities.

Peter Ramsauer, chairman of the Bavarian Christian Social Union caucus in the German parliament, went further still. He called the cancellation decision "pure cowardice."