"The last thing I wanted was Western elite people going to the Salzburg opera and having a lot of fun seeing how ‘stupid’ the Arabs are."

"You must be very politically aware that we are not laughing about, but we are laughing with... What I believe is that, according to the political context you’re in, you must be very aware of the references you’re using and how you present human suffering or human madness, whether it’s a tragedy or a comedic opera... You must be very careful about whose side you’re on when you deal with characters in an opera. But you must also be very sure that you’re not turning your art form into a gourmet experience for vocal fudge-makers... The piece at its core, in a certain way, is a very Western take on Islamic culture, and normally Mustafa is portrayed as just stupid and ugly and the Italians are clever and very heroic... That was something I was not interested in at all. We had to find another story line to keep the genius of Rossini and the music and the libretto, and keep it as a real comedy, because it’s important to laugh. But comedy is serious business, and you must know what you are laughing about."

From a NYT article about a new production of the 1813 Rossini opera "The Italian Girl in Algiers," which is about a Turkish leader who rejects his own wife because she is a Muslim and therefore (as the NYT puts it) "too ingratiating and submissive," and seeks "the exciting temperament and sexual prowess of an Italian woman." The title of the article, strangely effacing the anti-Muslim problem, is "Taking On 19th-Century Opera Stereotypes for the #MeToo Era."