Russian city cancels Jesus Christ Superstar performance over religious complaints

30/9/2012

Rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar has been pulled before a performance in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don following complaints from Orthodox Christians. The believers claim the production is in breach of a controversial new religious offense law.

­A group of eighteen private citizens sent a letter to the administration of the large city in the south of the country ahead of a touring performance of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which premiered 42 years ago.

“In our view the image of Christ presented in the opera is incorrect. If they want to stage a play about the life of the Savior, they should first clear it with the local church authority,” one of the offended believers told Life News.

“Now that there is a law for these offenses, we have decided to appeal to the state for help.”

The religious offense law was drafted in the wake of performance group Pussy Riot’s “punk prayer” in Moscow’s central cathedral earlier this year. Members of the group were sentenced to two years in a penal colony under the broad charge of hooliganism for a lack of more specific legislation. The bill calls for up to three years’ imprisonment for disrespecting religious sensibilities and is currently being discussed in the Duma.

The city’s administration has instructed the local theater to stop selling tickets for the production.

“We have no choice,” said Svetlana Zhabina, deputy director of the Rostov Philarmonic Theater. “Now, we have to wait for the decision from the city authorities.”

The musical was to be performed by Saint Petersburg’s Rock Opera Theater, which first staged it in 1990. It has put on the play four times in Rostov over the last two decades, with no noticeable protests.

“The opera has been performed for decades and has been recognized as a masterpiece. To talk about it from a religious point of view is unnecessary. Opera should be treated as art,” said Valentina Vaulina, the booker for the musical.

Jesus Christ Superstar, a non-religious retelling of the Gospels from the perspective of Judas, has been performed in almost every Christian country, and was made into a top-grossing film.

It has previously been banned in apartheid-era South Africa, and more recently Rock Opera Theater’s own production had to be called off in Belarus.

Despite the apparent success of the current attempts to ban the play, the local church does not actually appear to support the complaints.

“I’d like to note this is the opinion of some citizens, and not actually the official stance of the Church,” said Igor Petrovsky, spokesman of the local archdiocese. “Maybe they should have got a blessing from their priest before firing off a complaint.”

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