The anti-Semitism that has swept across Europe in recent months has now reached Lincoln Center. “The Death of Klinghoffer,” written and first preformed in 1991 as a love note to the PLO, is about to be dusted off and its anti-semitic rhetoric performed during the 2015 Opera Season.
In the opera, terrorists are romanticized and portrayed as freedom fighters forced by their evil Zionist overlords to take action, and nothing says righteous action like pushing an elderly disabled man overboard.
According to the Jerusalem Post: “The opening scene honors terrorists. With a backdrop of graffiti on a wall proclaiming “Warsaw 1943, Bethlehem 2005,” Jews wearing kippot and headscarves enter the stage and plant trees on what is conveyed to the audience as plundered Arab territory.” How is this allowed?
Several Jewish groups are expected to protest the presentation of “The Death of Klinghoffer” opera at the Lincoln Center later this month.
The Coalition Against the Met Terror Opera (CATO) announced plans for the massive protest to be held at Lincoln Center on Monday evening, September 22, from 4:30-6 P.M., at Broadway and 65th Street in Manhattan, the night of the gala opening of the Metropolitan opera season.
“The Metropolitan Opera, led by its director, Peter Gelb, persists in presenting ‘The Death Of Klinghoffer’ this fall, despite the fact that incontrovertible evidence exists in the libretto by Alice Goodman, and in remarks made by Gelb and the composer, John Adams, that the opera supports sympathy for terrorists and hatred for Jews and Israel,” CATO said in a statement.
“The story of the execution of Leon Klinghoffer by PLO terrorists in 1985, on the hi-jacked Achille Lauro, is well known. The handicapped Klinghoffer was selected to be murdered because he was a Jew. The terrorists shot him and threw him overboard in his wheelchair. The story is a frightening one and was an omen of the terrorism that was to come from the PLO that has morphed into ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, Muslim Brotherhood, Fatah and a host of others.”
“After pressure was exerted that acknowledged that the Klinghoffer opera could arouse anti-Semitic, pro-terror demonstrations across Europe and America, Peter Gelb agreed to cancel the HD showings of the opera around the world. However, he apparently believes that NYC can cope with the heinous message despite the fact that 3,000 plus innocent victims of Islamic terror fell on Sept. 11, 2001, and has insisted on performing the opera.
I cannot fathom what would make the Metropolitan Opera think this is even remotely OK. I understand that “creative” types have a different rationale from the normal human being, but there is no explaining this thought process.
Wondering why in the world anyone would create an opera sympathetic to terrorists and murders, I scoured the interwebs and found the answer in a 2005 article of the Los Angeles Times from the libretto’s author, Alice Goodman. According to Goodman: “Klinghoffer” would be a lesser piece in monochrome. The important thing for me, was to make everyone human. That doesn’t mean abdicating moral responsibility or even abdicating judgment, but it did mean not putting a finger on the scales.”
Excuse me?! I’m sorry, but terrorists are in no way human. It is high time we put the finger on the scales of justice and put an end to this anti-semitic garbage and the pro-terrorist rationale.