Opera For Prudes

An Opera Colorado production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni has been ordered ‘toned down’ after a group of home-schooled students viewed a dress rehearsal, and complained about the overtly sexual nature of a scene in which “a woman – dressed in a one-piece bustier, fishnet stockings, garter belt and high heels – [cavorted] with a sometimes shirtless Don Giovanni.” Since the entire plot of this particular opera is based on the sexual exploits of its title character, one might have expected the company to tell the complainants to get bent. But the president of the company was apparently similarly shocked to discover that there is sex in opera, and ordered that the show be sanitized for audience protection.