A black British drag queen called Le Gateau Chocolat (geddit?) was booed by opera buffs when s/he appeared in a performance of Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser at the prestigious Bayreuth opera festival.

An audience including Angela Merkel and Katharina Wagner, the German composer's great-granddaughter, watched as the performer from Brighton played a spirit accompanying Tannhäuser in a blond wig, heels and a pink tutu.

Sadly for Mr Chocolat, Bayreuth is known for its traditionalist audiences:

When he made his curtsey at the end he was loudly derided by a group of conservative viewers nicknamed the 'Wagner ultras'.

A shocked and disappointed Mr Chocolat told Times journalists afterwards:

I shoulder a gargantuan responsibility in my attempts to authentically present a queer identity that may challenge people's preconceptions on race, gender and sexuality... in the hallowed halls of Bayreuth.

Clearly, the rewriting of European cultural history will be incomplete until every last play, opera, ballet and film has been repopulated by homosexuals, 'transgenders' and non-Europeans.

It's what Wagner would have wanted.