Poseidon provoking swirl in the Deutsche Oper

September 25th: the Deutsche Oper, one of the three Opera houses in Berlin, decides to cancel the 4 performances of Idomeneo scheduled for November. After the very last note, Idomeneo, King of Crete, comes back on stage with a bag full of blood. Instead of the head of his son, that Poseidon required in order to allow him to set foot on his island, those of Jesus, Buddha, and Mahomet appear. The setting of Hans Neuenfels which already took place in 2003 may today awake reactions among the German muslims.

The Company's Director, Kirsten Harms, has been told a few weeks ago that the police received an anonymous threat. The police, asserted it had not been informed of any threat, it just received a call in June from someone who went to the performance 3 years ago and who was kind of worried of its impact today.

This rather surprising decision of the Deutsche Oper raises a load of questions:

What about the freedom of speech?

Are we now living in such an era when fear wins before any kind of debate even starts?

This cancellation is really odd all the more that Berlin seems to be one of the places around here where the integration of muslims works pretty well. At least better than, let's say in France for instance. According to the foreign ministry, 3,2 to 3,5 millions of Muslims live in Germany; just 10 to 15 % would be related to muslim organisations. Most of them hail from Turkey. 80% of them are sunnis, 17% alevites, and 3% shiites.

Much more surprising is also the fact that on the one hand Mrs Harms has been flaid by the critics, and on the other hand, one of the only supporters of that decision has been the President of the Islam Council which represents those 3 millions of German muslims. Ali Kizilkaya would have wished that Idomeneo, in Neuenfels' setting never took place.

September 27th: Actually the whole thema about cancelling or now maybe rescheduling Idomeneo is happening at a time when Berlin wants to elaborate a social contract.

A conference is taking place and 30 people, members of the State Administration and Muslims, are now brainstorming. They are dealing with three kinds of subjects: "German social order and values consensus", "Matters of Religion in the comprehension of the German Constitution" as well as "Economy and Media acting as a bridge". This meeting hold by the Minister of Interior Department, Wolfgang Schäuble, is a "première" in Germany, and seems to have been inspired by a similar French approach which began a few years ago with Nicolas Sarkozy. This conference is supposed to meet at least for 2 years, and come to a "social order". The recent state of thing with a progressive immigration of Muslims, is widely accepted, but german people acknowledge they don't really know anything about Islam, and those new inhabitants are settling on the German ground in a climate of indifference, or mutual incomprehension.

September 28th: After the opening of the Islam conference, Wolfgang Schäuble presumably willing to give evidence that the round of meetings is starting well, indicates that the 30 members would go to a performance of Idomeneo.
For a start, imagination has a ringside seat: one of the muslim members suggests to build a Mosquee instead of the Castle which is to be rebuilt instead of the Palace of the Republic, the old symbol of the GDR. That would bring a Mosquee just opposite to the Berliner Cathedral...

My dear Wolfgang Amadeus, if only you knew, all that fuss...