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BERLIN - Audience members at Monday's Deutsche Oper production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" will be kindly asked to empty their pockets of all metal objects. And they should be prepared to leave - quickly - in case of a bomb alert. The Austrian musical genius born 250 years ago was noted for an impish sense of humor and some directors take huge liberties with their interpretations of operas. But the security measures for the performance, which include electronic screening of opera goers and evacuation precautions, are not part of the plot. It's a case of art meeting religious sensibility - and...

Germany's conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday led political and arts world uproar at the scrapping of a Mozart opera that features the head of the prophet Mohammed rolling across the stage. The performances were cancelled amid fears the scene could trigger violence among the nation’s Muslim community. But Mrs Merkel denounced "self-censorship out of fear" as unacceptable, reflecting a mood of national indignation that was not limited to the arts set but cut right across all social lines. And last night there were hopes that increased government pressure might get the show put back on. A groundbreaking "integration" summit between...

A Berlin opera house condemned for canceling performances of a Mozart work because of concern it could provoke violence by Muslims said on Thursday it might consider staging the production if it had security assurances. "If there was a new security plan, we could consider it," Alexander Busche, a spokesman for the Deutsche Oper, said when asked about reinstating "Idomeneo," which includes a scene with the severed heads of the Prophet Mohammad, Buddha and Jesus. Although the opera house had agreed on its program until mid-June, there were some free days which could be used, he said. A row erupted...

Of course the war in Iraq has made us less safe, and I didn’t need the National Intelligence Estimate to tell me so. Who could possibly deny that Iraq has become, in the words of the NIE, a “cause célèbre” for jihadists? One need only read the newspaper to conclude that Iraq is spawning more terrorists. (Indeed, one fears that all the authors of the NIE did was clip from the newspapers.)If you’ve ever stood up to a bully, you know how this works. Confrontation tends to increase the chances of violence in the short term but decreases its likelihood...

One of Mozart's operas been taken off the playlist at Berlin's State Opera for fear of a terrorist attack. It's a shocking example of pre-emptive surrender: At this point, it seems, terrorists don't even need to issue a specific threat in order to intimidate us. It took the Catholic Church 359 years to revoke its condemnation of Galileo, but the current Pope needed only two days to distance himself from his quotation of a statement that remains topical despite being uttered 500 years ago. Piet Hein Donner, the former Dutch Minister of Justice, who has just resigned from her position,...

Mozart censor faces a backlashBy Roger Boyes  'Muhammad' opera is becoming test of how many concessions West should make Kerstin Harms has stuck by decision to reject the opera THE German Government tried yesterday to defuse an international row that erupted after a nervous opera house called off a Mozart performance because it featured the decapitated head of the Prophet Muhammad. The opera, Idomeneo, has become a test case of how far the West should go in making concessions to the Islamic world. The Deutsche Oper, one of Europe’s top opera houses, scrapped the production for fear of an...

Berlin's Deutsche Oper has removed the provocative staging of a Mozart opera from its schedule for fear of enraging Muslims, the opera house said in a statement. One of three opera houses in the German capital, it cancelled director Hans Neuenfels's production of "Idomeneo", a 1781 drama set in ancient Crete, because authorities warned it could present an "incalculable security risk". In the staging, which sparked audience protests during its premiere in December 2003, King Idomeneo presents the lopped-off heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and the Prophet Mohammed and displays them on four chairs. German critics saw the show at...