Metropolitan Opera to Stage Dreadful Anti-Israel, Anti-Semitic Work, the Death of Klinghoffer (Leon Klinghoffer Terrorist Murder 1985 – see the video clip below – an anti-Jewish and anti-Israel “opera.”
We have learned that the Met scheduled for the 2014-2015 season its first-ever performances of John Adams’s “opera” The Death of Klinghoffer. This opera has some problems.
The work has more problems than just the mediocre quality of the music. More serious than that is story line, which pushes one contentious point of view. That is made even worse by what can only be called “an inflammatory libretto” that falsely maligns not just Israel but also the Jewish people.
For those who don’t recall the name Leon Klinghoffer, he was a murder victim. Confined to a wheelchair, Klinghoffer was shot by Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorists and his body was thrown off the Italian cruise ship, Achille Lauro…
When People Vilify Israel They Vilify Every Jew!
I took the time to write to the Met, to scold them for running this event and here is the exchange from bottom to top:
There was my first short email, addressed to The Met.
It asked the question: “What sick mind writes an opera about a terror attack and what sick mind at the Met decides to produce it?”
Here is the the response from Nicole Halton, Met Opera Customer Relations:
From: Metropolitan Opera <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, Jun 6, 2014 at 9:34 AM
Subject: General
To: “[email protected]” <[email protected]>
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Dear Nurit,
Thank you for contacting us.
The Metropolitan Opera has championed the work of John Adams, one of America’s greatest living composers. This will be the third of his operas that the Met has presented over the last seven seasons. The Met is committed to presenting the finest works across the operatic repertory, as well as increasing the accessibility and relevance of the art form.
The Death of Klinghoffer is an opera about a terrible incident that has become part of a pattern of violence that in the ensuing decades continues to repeat itself. Mr. Adams has said that in writing the opera he tried to understand the hijackers and their motivations, and to look for humanity in the terrorists, as well as in their victims. Tom Morris, the director of the Met’s new production, believes that the opera’s most important contribution is in providing an opportunity for the audience to wrestle with the almost unanswerable questions that arise from this seemingly endless conflict.
Since this opera dramatizes a horrific act of violence, the Met acknowledges that some members of its audience may disagree with the decision to present this work. However, the Met believes that in staging it, audiences are being given the opportunity to hear one of the best operas of the late 20th century.
Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns with us.
Sincerely,
Nicole Halton
Met Opera Customer Relations
The Metropolitan Opera | Lincoln Center | New York, NY 10023
Phone: 212.362.6000 | Fax: 212.870.7695 | metopera.org
I responded to Nicole Halton at The Met:
Nicole Halton,
Thank you for taking the time to reply.
Mr. Adams claims that in writing the opera he tried to understand the hijackers and their motivations? Does he need to do that? Their ONE and ONLY one motivation is killing Jews and point blank killing. Do you have to write a political opera about the subject and in it vilifies Israel and Jews and give a plug to terrorists? To where have we arrived in our moral equivalence? The Met, the composers have lost their rational mind?
Terrorists’ life is killing; Moslem terrorists life objective is first to kill Jews and then all other infidels. Therefore, it is an endless conflict, we, in the west enflame by our unwillingness to see the truth, the facts, and the reality! Islam is an ideology wrapped in religion its ONLY goal is to dominate the world and the West’s foolish enlightenment is analyzing this clear subject that needs no analysis? How absurd?!
And writing an OPERA about it is doubly absurd!
A disabled man was thrown overboard and an opera was written about it? Perhaps Mr. Adams should write an opera about the close to 150,000 innocent civilians Bashar Assad, the dictator of Syria, has murdered thus far and analyze his murderous malevolent brain?!
Staging this opera is a huge mistake; HD it, to possibly millions of viewers, is doubly huge mistake. The least you can do is cancel the HD showing in the many theatres process.
Will the Met stage and broadcast an opera vilifying any other ethnic group! NO WAY! But, Jews, it has become a habit, humanity’s genetic disease, which, only 70 years ago has led to perpetrating the Holocaust purposely murdering 11 million innocent people, 6 million innocent Jews, among them 1 million children, 3 million Catholics and others! The Met is now complicit in incitement against Jews! What a terrible thing when “art” is used as a cover for hate.
Your reply leaves much to be desired and I ask again, after reading Myron Kaplan, Senior Research Analyst for CAMERA’s letter, please reconsider your actions.
Sincerely,
Nurit Greenger.
