Aix-en-Provence: a Mozart opera changed because of references … – Le Figaro

The staging of Martin Kusej The Abduction from the Seraglio, transposed into a jihadist camp , has been changed at the request of organizers. Two scenes were referring to the jihadist group Islamic state.

Here is a show that will long be talked about. The Aix-en-Provence Festival (Bouches-du-Rhône) did change the staging of The Abduction from the Seraglio , which made explicit reference to the jihadist group Daech .

The setting radical scene, proposed by Austrian Martin Kusej transposes the Singspiel in three acts by Mozart in a jihadist camp with his men armed with Kalashnikovs. The universe itself might have worked out with the booklet. Indeed, the story tells of a young man trying to rescue his bride held captive in the palace of the Pasha.

Two scenes, however, were not appreciated by Bernard Foccroulle, festival director. He found that the staging was going too far. “Two images have been deleted because they seemed to us unacceptable: a beheading and a Daech flag,” he explains to Europe 1. “I do not think that we can now use Opera Mozart for a message that is exactly the opposite of what Mozart wanted to say, that is to say that even in the opposite civilization, there actually has the same shared humanity. “

Music France states that the scene where the prisoners decapitated heads were displayed in plastic bags was removed. Foccroulle has asked the director to remove the inscriptions of the black flag of the Islamic State group.

Since 2007, the year he took office, this is the first time that it occurs in a production in such a way.

“The question of the image has become extremely sensitive, we do not want the images taken in the production can be found on the Internet out of context,” explained Foccroulle, during the presentation of the edition 2016 opera festival. “It’s not censorship, is maturity.”

The conductor Jérémie Rhorer, head of production, also acknowledged being at odds with the first proposal director. “There are things that seem questionable, questionable. The opera is an elite company with its codes, its provocations and its subversions but there are also civil society. And France knows very dramatic moments. An artist can not quite afford “