MOZART THE DECAPITATOR

MOZART THE DECAPITATOR

I was startled to read in the International Herald Tribune of Thursday 12 October 2006 an article touching on the subject of a new version of an opera by Mozart.

The updated version was planned to be delivered to the public in Germany, and was to have included "an additional scene showing the severed heads of Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha and Poseidon."

The name of the opera was not given in the article but perhaps, in its revised version, it is called MOZART THE DECAPITATOR.

The bosswoman of today's Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel, deplored the fact that the opera was canceled for security reasons. She is quoting as saying "It makes no sense to retreat."

She wants to go all the way in the name of free speech, and the hell with what people in the relevant religions might think, members of the Islamic community included.

Allowed to do what she wants, she would, presumably, have the thing go ahead in defiance of religious sensitivities. But perhaps she has not thought through the potential backlash from Mozart fans, a worldwide community of which I am a member, a community which has never, so far, had its potential power put to the test on the field of battle.

Although I am not of Germanic extraction, and have no personal connection to either Germany or Austria, I nevertheless feel that I have a stake in the Mozart issue, and I do not see MOZART THE DECAPITATOR as being the right way for Germanic culture to evolve.

I mean, what's next? A new opera called MOZART HEXENHAMMER, featuring Mozart the Witchhunter? MOZART THE TORTURER? MOZART THE CASTRATOR? MOZART THE INQUISITOR, scourge of Jews and lapsed Catholics? A revamped version of Mozart's REQUIEM, severely rewritten and now entitled DEATH MARCH OF THE KLINGON EMPIRE?

Are there no limits?

Merkel has been silent, as far as I can gather from the article, on the issue of how this bloodthirsty revised opera, MOZART THE DECAPITATOR or whatever it is called, desecrates the sacred image of Mozart.

Well, this Merkel dame should, if you ask me, think carefully about the fact that Mozart's fan base numbers in the tens of millions, many of them very seriously committed to the cause. Thousands of these fans are already living undetected in Germany and neighboring Austria, invisible amongst the general population, their membership of the Claque Mozart nowhere recorded in any of the government's computers.

These Mozartians are, for the most part, highly educated people, well organised and possessed of sufficient talent and ability to do just about anything they turn their minds to. Pushed beyond their endurance, there is no telling what they could do.

And Merkel, before promoting further atrocities against the sacred Mozart, should think carefully about the fact that many thousands of members of the Claque Mozart dwell invisibly in her own country. All of them no more than one easy shopping trip away from the local supermarket, stocked as it is with an affluent society's abundant supply of user-friendly household chemicals, extremely versatile if you know what to do with them.

In local news, here in Japan, I'm pleased to say that, so far, North Korea has resisted the temptation to use its brave new nuclear bomb on foreign soil. The North Korean nuke is the number one topic in all the news bulletins, and will remain so, I imagine, for some time yet.