A Blight on the Opera

Europe’s latest piece of cringing cultural appeasement has come not from politicians but the heart of the artistic establishment itself. The world famous Deutsche Oper in Berlin has cancelled performances of Mozart’s Idomeneo for fear of causing offence and unrest. As is reported in The Times today, the decision has caused outrage amongst politicians and commentators in Germany.

The scene in the opera which was apparently causing particular anxiety was that in which the King of Crete holds aloft the decapitated heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and the Prophet Muhammad and cries ‘The gods are dead!’ Presumably with the Pope’s recent comments in mind, a spokesman for Deutsche Oper said yesterday that putting on Idomeneo would ‘represent an incalculable security risk for the theatre at present.’ They made this announcement after having received a police report advising that ‘disturbances could not be excluded’ during performances of the opera.

Politicians across the spectrum have at least had the guts to condemn such craven behaviour, speaking out against the threat to freedom of expression which is all too real and of which this is just the latest example. As the Times reports, Peter Ramsauer, head of the conservative Christian Social Union parliamentary faction, said: ‘It is an act of pure cowardice. We are opening ourselves up to cultural blackmail.’

Yet again the European cultural elites, who profess to value artistic freedom above all else, are demonstrating their utter weakness when it comes to actually defending the liberal values they supposedly hold so dear. Perhaps this is to be expected when one considers the ingrained self-hatred and collapse of confidence which characterises so much of contemporary European culture – one which increasingly defines itself purely on the basis of hostility to America.

But what is especially worrying about this episode is that the self-censoring involves an established classic. Does this mean that, along with the self-imposed ban on any new cultural depictions of any aspect of Islam (which is effectively in place and which amounts to a form of unofficial sharia law), Europe will now look carefully at every aspect of its cultural heritage before displaying it?

Peter Whittle