Homosexual rape scenes and Nazi salutes: Why Verdi wouldn't recognise his opera

The English National Opera is likely to cause controversy tonight with a production of Verdi's A Masked Ball featuring scenes of homosexual rape and transvestism.

The English National Opera is likely to cause controversy tonight with a production of Verdi's A Masked Ball featuring scenes of homosexual rape and transvestism.

The opera has been directed by the Spaniard Calixto Bieito, who provoked outrage and first-night booing at the ENO last year for turning Mozart's Don Giovanni into a drug-fuelled orgy of sex and violence set in modern-day Barcelona. The new production opens with the story's conspirators sitting on the lavatory and is set in post-Franco Spain.

Julian Gavin, the tenor originally cast in the leading role of King Gustavus, withdrew on "moral and artistic grounds", saying he could not appear in a production to which he felt unable to bring his children.

The ENO has issued this warning to the public in its season brochure: "Those who prefer something more traditional should be warned that there will be some violent and adult scenes as well as black humour and, in Verdi's words, 'fire, excitement, disorder'."

Yet a spokesman insisted the more violent elements were in keeping with a staging that emphasised the brutal politics of the court. He said: "My feeling is it's far less shocking than Don Giovanni."

The spokesman defended the homosexual rape scene, which was not in Verdi's original staging. It highlighted the brutality of the society, he said. "It's not about sex, it's about aggression and violence."

A Masked Ball is based on the story of an 18th-century Swedish King, Gustavus III, who falls in love with his best friend's wife and is assassinated. Verdi moved the action to colonial Boston because of political sensitivities when he wrote it.

Nicholas Payne, the ENO's general director, said Verdi himself made clear he did not mind where it was set "as long as it was not too far in the past". He added: "Calixto has set it in the aftermath of Franco's Spain and seeks to expose the hypocrisy and insecurity of politicians playing at power."

There is also reportedly concern among some members of the chorus about having to perform a Fascist salute. An ENO spokesman said such salutes were used in Franco's Spain and the gesture was used to enable the king, Gustavus, to point out that the monarchy had been restored.

The production originally opened in Barcelona, where it was catcalled at the première, then performed in Copenhagen, where it was well-received.

The London staging has been beset by difficulties. The director was forced to miss rehearsals because his father was ill and leading singers John Daszak, who plays Gustavus, and Claire Rutter, playing Amelia, have also been sick. Monday's rehearsal, which would normally have been open to Friends of the ENO, remained closed for work to be completed.

Risque productions

* Scottish Opera's production of Cosi fan tutte in 1998 featured a singer in a rabbit costume sporting a 35ft penis;

* David McVicar's production of Rigoletto for the English National Opera in September last year included mass copulation, nudity, rape, oral sex and casual sex;

* In Graham Vick's Don Giovanni at Glyndebourne in 2000, Giovanni was a rock dandy and the setting was a dirty protest in a dung heap;

* Powder Her Face by Thomas Ades, first produced in 1995, re-enacted the scandal of the late Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, including her having oral sex with an unidentified man, which featured in her divorce case.