Let's keep the "Angst vor dem Islam", and the original content of the opera two separate things, Tak. And I already marked your argument anyway:
"As far as I do know, the opera itself is not the problem anyway. I don't know the opera myself, but it was said the scene when the heads of Jesus, Poseidon, Muhammad and Buddha are shown at the end (to illustrate the fight against the power of religious dogmas) is not part of the original Mozart opera, but has been added by the director as his interpretation and freedom of arts. Needless to say that I do not agree with that decision to pull it, it is ridiculous."
The real idiotic thing here is that a threat from Muslim side even has not been spoken out. The thing got cancelled just because it was considered to be possible that there may be protests. One even does not know who has launched the authorities to make a security assessment report, that is not automatic routine, but is only done by request. The requester is not identified so far. It could very well have been no Muslim, but an Anti-Muslim activist! This is the real scandal behind all this: that many people are willing to submit to Islamic demands - that even have not been stated, but are just imagined! Just the possebility that maybe, eventually, possibly, in the future Islam may worry about something that is being done already causes such people to give up in anticipated obedience.
Political pressure in Germany is mounting massively, I expect to see the opera being put back onto the seasonal plan soon anyway.
Maybe it all is a planned provocation by someone to reach exactly this result: a hardening of a public front not to allow Islamic demands to censor our public life. That is a third possebility for an explanation. Like I am cinvinced that the pope quote was no accident, but a precisely calculated "operation" to focus Western attention on a certain problem that we have with Islam's lacking control of it's tempers. Ratzinger simply is too intelligent and well-studied in Islam as that he could have made that "mistake" by accident and not knowing what would happen. The way the pope dealt with it afterwards, and made explanations that nevertheless carefully avoided any real apology, but referred time and again back to the importance of reason in religion, makes me think that it all was going "according to plan." Commentators said the speed by which the Vatican reacted illustrated the importance they saw in the need to adress Muslim protest. I say it was because the answers already was prepared. They probably already had started to wonder what took Muslims two long days before starting to boil hot.
But we agree on that opera. I do not like opera in general, but modern interpretations, as far as I am aware of them by snippets, I find even worse. But the orchestra of my father made a nice CD with Puccini overtures, these are making some fine music for red wine and cooking in the kitchen
