Severed Heads Are The Least Of It

Anne Applebaum was in attendance this week when Deutsche Oper’s controversial production of Mozart’s “Idomeneo” premiered, severed prophet heads and all, and she writes that the supposedly inflammatory scene isn’t really the issue. “If one were trying to understand German society, or Western culture, or even Mozart by watching this production, one would have been seriously confused… Why did the first scene take place at a black table, for example, around which sat corpses? Why did the satyrs wear phalluses on top of their furry costumes?”