Mozart Opera Canceled After Security Fears
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Berlin’s Deutsche Oper canceled four planned November performances of Mozart’s “Idomeneo” on concern that the production’s reference to world religions, including Islam, raises an “incalculable security risk.”
“To avoid endangering its audience and employees, the management has decided against repeating ‘Idomeneo’ in November 2006,” the opera house said in a press release.
The “Idomeneo” production, directed by Hans Neuenfels, shows King Idomeneo staggering on stage carrying the decapitated heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad. German press agency DPA said Berlin police have so far recorded no direct threat to the opera house.
