The staging at the Theater Erfurt, which opened April 12 and runs through May 30, features singers dressed as Hitler, Uncle Sam and Marilyn Monroe. Oh, and there are 35 extras between the ages of 50 and 69 wearing nothing but Mickey Mouse masks to represent what director Johann Kresnik calls the "victims of capitalism."

"The American culture that Europe is drowning in cannot be separated from U.S. power politics," Kresnik said in an interview with The Associated Press. "That includes McDonald's, Mickey Mouse and also the culture of sex."

"A Masked Ball," a tale loosely based on the 1792 assassination of Swedish King Gustav III, has long been controversial. After objections from censors, Verdi moved the setting from Europe to colonial Boston for its premiere at Rome's Teatro Apollo in 1859.

Kresnik is proving that controversy sells.

An avalanche of negative reviews didn't prevent all performances from selling out before opening night. And while audience reaction has been mostly negative - with booing greeting some performances - opera fans have been packing the theater night after night.

The Austrian-born 68-year-old director is famous for his self-proclaimed Marxist bent and copious use of nudity.

As for the World Trade Center's ruins, he said it was an "unbelievably powerful and suggestive image" well-suited to a "new, highly political interpretation."

Opera productions with sex and violence are no rarity in Germany, known for its tradition of Regietheater, which gives directors unlimited license to update and reinterpret classic works, often with little regard for the intentions of the composer and librettist.

In Hans Neuenfels' 2000 staging of Verdi's "Nabucco" at the Deutsche Opera Berlin, Babylonians were dressed as giant bumblebees.

Kresnik defended his version of "Ballo," saying Verdi was forced to relocate the action.

"I changed neither Verdi's music nor his text. I simply have given the opera another interpretation," he said.

Kresnik said the idea was born after a visit to the U.S., where he choreographed Richard Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier" in Maximilian Schell's production at the Los Angeles Opera three years ago.

He called the U.S. "the worst police state I've ever experienced. It's incredible how people there are treated, controlled, shaken down and surveilled."

Those feelings lingered, and he let them out in a barrage of bile with his latest production.

The Bild newspaper, Germany's biggest, likened the production to a "nightmare trip to Disneyland," and said it marked a new low in "vulgar kinkiness" on the German stage. The Erfurt-based Thueringer Allgemeine pronounced it "boring and infuriating" and said the production suffered from "inconsistency, clumsiness, logical blunders and general overstuffedness."

Kresnik was unfazed.

"On principle, I don't read any reviews," he said, adding that he's received a lot of hate mail from people he dubbed right-wingers.

He also blamed the negativity on pre-opening calls for a boycott by Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union, which runs the state government in the eastern state of Thuringia, of which Erfurt is the capital.

As for recruiting the naked extras, he says that proved surprisingly easy because of the legacy of former East Germany's fondness for nudism.

He disputed claims by the CDU that he had exploited cash-strapped pensioners.

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.