Berlin opera may stage "Idomeneo" in December

BERLIN, Oct 4 (Reuters) The Berlin opera house which sparked a row by cancelling Mozart's ''Idomeneo'' over fears it could provoke Muslim violence said on Tuesday it might stage the production in December.

The director of Deutsche Oper, Kirsten Harms, said yesterday during a public debate that she had asked the police for a new evaluation of the security situation.

''No one believes we do not want to stage this production,'' she told the audience at the opera house.

Later she told reporters she was trying to find a way of staging the opera, which has a scene showing the severed heads of the Prophet Mohammad, Jesus and Buddha.

''It could be that we could do it in December,'' said Harms, who stressed she wanted a new security plan.

The cancellation last week sparked condemnation from politicians and artists who warned Germans against bowing to fears of terrorism.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a speech on the anniversary of German reunification yesterday that Germans should not make compromises on freedom of art, speech or religion.

''Some people have an unnecessary mental block about their right to express their views. It is as if the white flag is hoisted before there is threat of anything happening,'' she said.

''How else can you view the decision to cancel the Mozart opera in Berlin?'' Harms told the audience the police had warned her of a possible security risk if she went ahead with the production, which had its premiere in 2003.

She said she had a responsibility to defend artistic freedom and to ensure people's safety.

''The question is, what else should I have done?'' she said.

Berlin's councillor for internal affairs Erhart Koerting said the police could protect the opera house.

''It is a broader question about what the production might have unleashed afterwards, elsewhere,'' he said. Some members of the audience booed him repeatedly but clapped Harms.

Germany's Muslim groups, who were not represented at the debate, stress they have not called for the opera to be pulled.

The opera tells the story of the Cretan king Idomeneo and was first performed in 1782. The controversial production by director Hans Neuenfels has not been shown since mid-2004.

The Berlin row followed a speech by Pope Benedict last month which sparked outrage among some Muslims. He quoted from a medieval text linking the spread of the Islamic faith to violence.

REUTERS PDM RAI0949