FRANKFURT (AFP) ― The German theater director whose controversial staging of a Richard Wagner opera to a Nazi-era theme was cancelled after the premiere hit back Monday at what he saw as “censorship.”

“What happened in Duesseldorf is the censorship of art. That is the real scandal,” Burkhard Kosminski told the weekly magazine Der Spiegel in an interview.

Kosminski’s new reading of Wagner’s opera “Tannhaeuser” ― which set the composer’s story of the mediaeval knight-minstrel in the Nazi era and contained the graphic portrayal of the gassing and execution of Jews ― was loudly booed at its May 4 premiere in Duesseldorf.

After much heated debate in the local press, with the city’s Jewish community describing the staging as being in “bad taste,” management announced that the remaining four performances in the short run would not be staged, but would be given as concert performances instead.

The opera house said it had been fully aware that the director’s concept and staging would likely cause controversy.

“But it is with great consternation that we ascertain that some scenes, including the very realistic execution scenes, caused such physical and psychological distress to some audience members that they sought medical help afterwards,” the house said in a statement.

In “intensive talks with the director, we discussed possible changes to individual scenes,” the statement said.

“But he rejected this on artistic grounds. We have therefore decided that ‘Tannhaeuser’ will be in concert performance only,” the statement said.

Kosminski told Der Spiegel that he was left “shocked and speechless” by the decision.

“We were put under extreme pressure by the local press and ignorant know-alls, most of whom didn’t even see the staging,” the director complained.