Council for National Security Can't Guarantee Composer's Security

S.P. Somtow

And the hits just keep on coming from General Sonthi's coup. The latest gaffe in his Council for National Security's bid to rid Thailand of corruption was to pick a fight with the country's most famous composer, Somtow Sucharitkul. His new opera, Ayodhya, depicts the death of the demon-king Thotsakan (pictured below at right).



While that is a taboo in Khon, the country's traditional masked drama, it doesn't particularly extend to Westernized opera. Still, Sonthi's dunderheaded "interim government" promised that they would blame Somtow's opera if anything bad happened to them, and made him sign an agreement allowing them to ban the opera at any time.

Prelude, from Ayodhya
First Movement, from Requiem (commissioned by the previous government In Memoriam 9/11)