A fifth head for Idomeneo?

A month after the cancellation of its Mozart's Idomeneo - for fear that a beheaded Muhammad along with other headless Gods and Goddesses could fuel violence or even terrorist acts from offended Muslim fundamentalists, as reported here in Blight on the Opera -, the Berlin Deutsche Oper finally decided to show the production twice, on the 18th and 29th of December, as part of the Christmas season.
Now, in an interview published by the German magazine FOCUS tomorrow (Monday, November 13th), Hans Neuenfels, the director, reveals for the first time that he has received four threatening letters on his home fax machine.

What however is most alarming of all is the fact that these threats were received after Kirsten Harms, the frightened head of the Opera, announced the cancellation.

Appeasement, as we should know by now, never works.

FG

Seasons of mist, mellow fruitfulness and melancholy…

This week sees the first English Music Festival, which is being held over four days in Oxfordshire. The creation of enthusiast Em Marshall, it promises to be a wonderful and much-needed event. But, as Rod Liddle writes in today’s Spectator, the problems encountered by Ms Marshall in getting funding from companies seem to have been horrendous; overall, it would appear that with their nailed-on PC sensibilities, corporations have been nervous of the festival appearing too elitist and/or reactionary.

Of course if it shows signs of becoming popular, there’s no doubt that these companies will eventually jump on the bandwagon. In the meantime, Ms Marshall should be congratulated for working so hard to achieve something obviously born of a labour of love.

In his article Liddle is however mistaken about one thing when he talks of English classical music’s reputation as being fogeyish, musty and distinctly Daily Telegraph. In fact it has enjoyed an enormous revival in recent years, and names such as Elgar and Vaughn Williams regularly feature on Classic FM’s lists of most popular composers. Classic FM is listened to by some six million people, many of whom are ordinary working people who wouldn’t necessarily know a pot of gentleman’s relish from a tin of shoe polish, but who are instinctively drawn by a kind of tribal memory to the qualities in this music.

by Peter Whittle

http://Englishmusicfestival.org.uk

http://www.spectator.co.uk

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