Photo Gallery Staged to Offend
A new staging of Giuseppe Verdi's opera "A Masked Ball" at a theater in Erfurt, Germany is sure to shock. The opera premieres this Saturday.
The new staging by Austrian director Johann Kresnik has a gaggle of nude cast members adorning their birthday suits and Mickey Mouse masks.
The setting is the rubble of the World Trade Center.
While there are plenty of references that slam America, like the Uncle Sam seen here, there are also references that could offend German sensibilities.
One female character, wearing a mustache reminiscent of Hitler's, offers the Nazi salute.
Many of the opera's main characters perform all or part of the show naked.
According to Kresnik, traditional productions of plays no longer entice young people into theaters the way they used to.
"You have to come up with new elements," he said.
Asked about the nude seniors, Kresnik said: "The naked stand for people without means, the victims of capitalism, the underclass, who don't have anything any more."
Austrian-born director Kresnik is one of the most famous directors and choreographers working in Germany today.
"For many politicans in Germany, the USA is still the great dream," said Kresnik. With the opera, he said, he wanted to point out that child poverty and homelessness had by now spread to Germany.
