Well, this really blows dead rats. It's Mozart's 250th Birthday Year, and Deutsche Oper is cancelling "Idomeneo" scheduled for November.
There is worse classical music news. In the United States, shopping malls that were having trouble with hordes of unsupervised teenage mischief-makers found that piping classical music -- Mozart, J.S. Bach -- through the mall speakers is a very effective Youth Repellent, the Youth don't want to hang at the shopping mall anymore, the horrible geezer music is just too icky, the mall just isn't fun anymore.
But this really blows dead rats. I'm out of here. I'm hopping the Zeta Beam to Planet Vleeptron for a few days.
The Dwingeloo Galactic Opera is putting on Alban Berg Week, "Lulu" and "Wozzeck" back to back.
No one could possibly object to that.
Meanwhile, lots of people never make it to the last paragraphs of a news story, they figure the story said all the important stuff in the first few grafs.
So in case you're feeling weary and may not make it to Das Ende, here's a little bonbon from the penultimate paragraph:
Berlin was one of the few cities to vote against Hitler in 1933
Something to think about when you're planning a Euro trip. I sure had a metric shitload of fun there. Stayed at .
So did Thomas Mann!
"Wir suchten schon unser vertrautes Savoy Hotel in der Fasanenstrasse auf. Ein kleines Hotel .
.., aber so sympathisch und behaglich.
" -- Thomas Mann
A deutsches production of Weil's "One Touch of Venus" was playing across the Strasse. I wouldn't have missed that place for anything.
So no posts for a few Earth Days.
While I'm in Another Galaxy, please Leave A Comment. About anything.
International Herald Tribune (Paris)
Tuesday 26 September 2006
Berlin opera canceled
after religious threats
by Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune
BERLIN -- Fearing religiously motivated attacks, one of Germany's most prestigious opera houses on Tuesday canceled all further performances of Mozart's "Idomeneo," citing "incalculable risks" to the public after receiving anonymous threats.
The cancellations by the Deutsche Oper, affecting four scheduled performances in November, dealt a blow to Berlin's long tradition of artistic freedom, and were roundly criticized by top government officials.
The opera is about Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, who exacts a cruel allegiance. But in this production, by the noted director Hans Neuenfels, one of the last scenes shows the protagonist presenting the severed heads of several religious figures: not only Poseidon, but also Jesus, Buddha and Muhammad.
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