Corrupted opera text wows Turin

The audience was amused, but not the management of a Turin theatre, when a singer in a Strauss opera added references to Italy's corruption scandal, AFP reports from Rome. Heinz Holecek, playing a warder guarding a wealthy notable in Johann Strauss's Fledermaus, broke from the text to improvise 'the people in this prison are getting a lot smarter', referring to the arrest of prominent politicians over the scandal, and 'these amnesties will ruin the republic', prompting hilarity in the audience. The management said Holecek's improvisation was 'in bad taste'.