Berlin, Germany - Under heavy security, a production of Mozart’s opera “Idomeneo” that had been dropped for fear of Muslim backlash over a scene with the severed head of the Prophet Muhammad, returned to the stage Monday without incident.
A powerful male voice called out, “Stop it!” and “Boo!” as the head of the founder of Islam, along with those of Jesus, Buddha and Poseidon, the Greek god of the seas, came tumbling out of a sack hefted by Idomeneo.
But several voices from the other side of the hall yelled, “Continue, continue,” their cheers meeting the voice of the critic, and the cast and orchestra received prolonged applause.
Plainclothes security personnel lined the hall throughout the performance and audience members had to pass through metal detectors because of concerns that the scene involving the severed heads could arouse unrest. Officials said that 100 police officers were on duty.
The precautions delayed the raising of the opening curtain by a half-hour, as people filtered into the 1,863-seat hall of the Deutsche Oper, which was about 100 seats short of being sold out.
Some people wondered what the fuss was all about.
Christe Grünheid, 69, said she had seen the production nine times already and did not care about the debate that erupted when the opera’s November performances were canceled because of vague security warnings, and then continued after protests that the opera management had failed to defend artistic freedom.
“I’m only here because of the music,” she said. “The whole commotion leaves me cold.”
The scene that started all the trouble is a creation not of Mozart but of the director, Hans Neuenfels, who called it his personal protest against all organized religion.
The production is three years old, and when it first premiered the severed heads aroused little attention outside the opera world.
But that was before a Danish newspaper published cartoons of Muhammad that led to Muslim riots worldwide, and before comments by the German-born Pope Benedict XVI further angered the Islamic world, just as the Neuenfels production was to be revived.
Concerns about the scene initially led the Deutsche Oper to cancel plans to revive the opera in November. The opera manager, Kirsten Harms, said in September that her decision was prompted by the advice of the Berlin police.
The decision was roundly condemned, with Chancellor Angela Merkel warning against “self-censorship out of fear.”
The government had invited all 15 members of its panel representing people of Muslim heritage, both secular and religious, to attend, but only nine accepted, the Interior Ministry said.
Leaders of the Council of Islam and German Council of Muslims declined the invitation.
Meyer, president of the Catholic national committee, said he entirely sympathized with the Muslim leaders.
'In the eyes of devout people, to demonstratively support an anti- religious spectacle is not proof of tolerance, but an expression of a lack of self-esteem,' said Meyer, adding that he wondered how Christians could watch such an opera without thinking likewise.
Wartenberg-Potter, Lutheran bishop of the northern city of Luebeck, said the scene trampled on people's precious values, adding that this was not enlightened, but primarily provocative.
'It expresses a denigration of religious values that is very widespread in our society,' she said on a national radio show.
However, Seyran Ates, a lawyer who represents Turkish wives in divorces, and Necla Kelek, an author critical of Turkish customs, slammed religious leaders who excused themselves from seeing the opera.
The two women are among Germany's best-known Turkish secular figures and are perceived as hostile to traditional Islam. As members of the government's Muslim-heritage panel, they indicated they would attend. Bookings have been moderate and the show was not sold out.
Ates said on the radio channel Deutschlandradio Kultur that the show ought to have initiated discussion on making religion more up to date. On the same channel, Kelek criticized Islam, saying it made no allowance for 'religion in the form of art.'
'Every individualized form of religion is banned,' she said.
Kenan Kolat, chairman of another secular group, the Turkish Community of Germany, had criticized the religious groups on Sunday.