[octothorp]

As much as I'm against censorship, I have to wonder why a director would alter a perfectly decent opera (I mean, as Mozart goes). When I saw it (sans Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed), it was pretty obvious that the evils of Neptune were a metaphor for modern gods; that's likely what Mozart had intended, but had he put the severed head of Jesus in his opera, he would have had an even shorter life. The blame has to go with those who, unprompted, decided to cancel the opera. If they wanted to avoid controversy, they could have chosen to stage a subtle, authentic version of Idomeneo, but instead they chose to go with a flavour-of-the-month production.

Theatre gets censored more than any other type of art, and not all of it is at the hands of Islam. There was a play in New York that was cancelled earlier this year because it was critical of Israel and seen as too controversial; and one a few years ago that critical of Catholicism and was cancelled after bomb threats and death threats both in New York and Germany. (I think it was called Corpus Christi, if anyone wants to look it up. I don't remember the name of the Israel one, except that it was directed by Alan Rickman.)