Politicians join debate over Met's 'Klinghoffer'
As New York's Metropolitan Opera prepared for Monday's opening of its first staging of John Adams' controversial 1991 opera The Death of Klinghoffer, those protesting the production were planning their own displays — with some high-profile politicians joining them.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former New York governor David Paterson and U.S. Reps. Peter King and Jerald Nadler were among the officials slated to join others opposed to the opera outside the Met Monday afternoon and evening.
Current Mayor Bill DeBlasio. in contrast, expressed support for the Met's right to present the opera, saying Monday morning, at a news conference in Queens, " "I think the American way is to respect freedom of speech. Simple as that."
At issue is Klinghoffer's perceived depiction of Jews and of the Palestinian militants who, in an infamous 1985 event, hijacked the Achille Lauro and murdered Leo Klinghoffer, a disabled Jewish-American passenger. Various critics — including Klinghoffer's daughters, who released a statement at the time of the opera's original premiere — have charged that the work is anti-Semitic and justifies or even glorifies terrorism. (A new statement from the daughters will be included in the Met program.)
Defenders have argued that Klinghoffer is more even-handed and emphasizes the humanity of all the parties involved.
Debate has dogged the production, the Met's first of the opera, since its announcement. In June, Peter Gelb, canceled plans to make Klinghoffer available in movie theaters as part of the company's Live in HD series, and as audio broadcast.
By 2 PM Monday, preparation for the demonstrations were under way outside Lincoln Center. A screening of the film version of the 1990 made-for-TV movie Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair was planned, as was an "100-wheelchair caravan" in solidarity with the late Klinghoffer.
Frederick Urban, arriving at the opera house to pick up his ticket, saw some of the wheelchairs being unloaded out of a van, and declared the scene "distasteful." Urban added, "The question i would have of protestors is what exactly in the opera they object to."
Urban noted that a PDF of the libretto has been made available online: "I wonder if the protesters have actually read all of that. If they had I would be willing to discuss what they find distasteful. Certainly I'm going into it with an open mind."
Rabbi Avi Weiss, of the Hebrew Institute of Riverside, who conducted an early-afternoon prayer vigil across the street, said he had "read the while libretto many times," and maintained, "The Met tonight is going to be putting on an opera where the terrorists who brutally took Leon Klinghoffer's life are going to be presented in a sympathetic, heroic way."