Berlin Will Reinstate Opera Depicting Prophet Muhammad

The director of Berlin's Deutsche Oper, criticized for canceling performances of an opera over concern that it may offend Muslims, said she will reinstate the production when security authorities give clearance.

Kirsten Harms told a panel debate at the opera house that she will bring back Hans Neuenfels's production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" once Berlin's Interior Ministry "gives a new assessment of the security situation."

The production's final scene shows a blood-spattered King Idomeneo carrying the severed heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad. Security officials warned Ms. Harms in August that the production presented an "incalculable security risk." The police have since said they received no concrete threat.

Ms. Harms's announcement on September 25 that she was canceling four November performances prompted criticism from politicians including Chancellor Merkel and Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who said the cancellation was a blow for artistic freedom and set a dangerous precedent.

Deutsche Oper will also ask a Berlin interior senator, Ehrhart Körting, for a "security concept" to protect the opera house's staff and audiences before reviving the Neuenfels production, Ms. Harms said. With 1,865 seats, Deutsche Oper is the biggest of Berlin's three opera houses and Germany's second largest.

"‘Idomeneo' can come back to the Deutsche Oper in the next few months,"Mr. Körting told the panel, admitting he had made a mistake in suggesting to Ms. Harms in August that she drop the opera from her program because it was a security risk.