Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio is supposed to be a comedy. Comedies, as a rule, do not include “scenes of copulation, fellatio, rape, torture and mutilation.” Comedies do not end with the protagonists littering the stage as corpses. And yet, this is the much-criticized approach being taken to Seraglio by Berlin’s Komische Oper. People are walking out of the production in droves, and newspapers are braying about misuse of public funds. So why even attempt such a bloody and controversial production? Well, every show thus far has sold out. “It could also be that shock treatment is just what’s needed to jolt some outmoded art forms back to life.”