Rape, Satan and lavatory scene fails to shock opera-goers
A new opera production featuring a homosexual rape, a Satanic ritual with a naked couple simulating sex and a lavatory scene have failed to shock a premiere audience.
Calixto Bieito's production for English National Opera of Verdi's A Masked Ball was warmly applauded by the London Coliseum audience.
There had been advance reports of near rebellion among the cast over the Spanish director off-the-wall staging.
Verdi's opera tells the story of the 18th century Swedish King Gustav III, killed by his best friend who believes the king has made love to his wife.
Bieito's modern dress production opens with 14 murder conspirators sitting on toilets facing the audience with their trousers rounds their ankles.
The Satanic ritual is set in a brothel and the homosexual rape - Bieito's own invention - occurs during one of the most tender of Verdi's musical passages.
In a later scene the assassin is chosen by drawing names written on toilet paper in a child's plastic potty.
The early reports prompted speculation that the show might end in vociferous booing but there was nothing but applause and cheers for the large cast.
The director, who sat among the audience, did not appear at the final curtain.
An ENO spokesman said earlier: "The tickets are going like gold dust."
