Jewish groups praised the New York Metropolitan Opera’s announcement that it had canceled plans to broadcast the opera "The Death of Klinghoffer," following criticism that the opera glorifies murder and could fan global anti-Semitism.
The opera by John Adams deals with the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship by Palestinian terrorists and the murder in cold blood of one of its disabled Jewish passengers, American Leon Klinghoffer who was thrown overboard. It revises history to malign Israel, in an attempt to justify and "humanize" the Palestinian terrorists.
The live HD transmission was planned on November 15.
"I'm convinced that the opera is not anti-Semitic," Met General Manager Peter Gelb was quoted as saying, adding however that ‘’I've also become convinced that there is genuine concern in the international Jewish community that the live transmission of 'The Death of Klinghoffer' would be inappropriate at this time of rising anti-Semitism, particularly in Europe."
The final decision was made after a series of discussions between Gelb and Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), representing the wishes of the Klinghoffer daughters.
“Obviously, from our point of view and that of the Klinghoffer sisters, we would have hoped that the Metropolitan Opera would have stayed away from mounting such a problematic opera,” Foxman said.
“We certainly did not want to see the Met production simulcast into theaters around the world. The Met was very open to hearing our concerns. After listening to our views, they have agreed to cancel the simulcasts and to take steps to ensure that the Klinghoffer family’s perspective is clearly heard by opera patrons.”
In addition to canceling the broadcast, which would have significantly expanded the production’s reach into more than 2,000 theaters in 66 countries, the Met has agreed to include a statement from Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer in the printed program during the opera’s scheduled run of eight performances in October and November 2014.
A similar statement from the Klinghoffers was included in the program and marketing materials when the opera was staged earlier this year by Long Beach Opera.
“'The Death of Klinghoffer' perverts the terrorist murder of our father and attempts to romanticize, rationalize, legitimize and explain it," Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer said in an ADL statement. "
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) welcomed the Met’s decisionbut said that it is distressing that the Metropolitan Opera has still not canceled the eight live performances of "Death of Klinghoffer" in New York City this fall.
"In this era when too many excuse hatred against Jews and Israel, it was gratifying to find a company which understood the anti-Semitic nature of this opera, and immediately took action,’’ stated ZOA President Mort Klein of AMC Theaters, which owns the theaters throughout the United States where "Klinghoffer" was scheduled for broadcast.