Art Versus Sham as Political Perspective

"Then there were the choruses. The two that open the opera are supposed to demonstrate the comparative suffering of the displaced Palestinians and the displaced Jews. The Palestinian chorus is beautifully composed musically, with some compelling words, sung rhythmically and sympathetically. The Jewish chorus is a mishmash of whining about money, sex, betrayal and assorted "Hasidism" protesting in front of movie theaters. It never mentions the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust, though the chorus is supposed to be sung by its survivors. The goal of that narrative chorus is to compare the displacement of 700,000 Palestinians—some of which was caused by Arab leaders urging them to leave and return victoriously after the Arabs murdered the Jews of Israel—with the systematic genocide of six million Jews. It was a moral abomination.
And it got worse. The Palestinian murderer is played by a talented ballet dancer, who is portrayed sympathetically. A chorus of Palestinian women asks the audience to understand why he would be driven to terrorism. "We are not criminals," the terrorists assures us.
One of the terrorists—played by the only Black lead singer—is portrayed as an overt anti-Semite, expressing hateful tropes against "the Jews". But he is not the killer. Nor, in this opera, is Klinghoffer selected for execution because he is a Jew. Instead, he is picked because he is a loudmouth who can't control his disdain for the Palestinian cause."
Alan Dershowitz, Lawyer, journalist, opera buff

Demonstrators protest outside Lincoln Center in New York on October 20, 2014 against The Metropolitan Opera's planned performances of 'The Death of Klinghoffer.' Photo by AFP

"[We believe the arts] can play a critical role in examining and understanding significant world events. The Death of Klinghoffer does no such thing. It presents false moral equivalencies without context, and offers no real insight into the historical reality and the senseless murder of an American Jew."
Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer

There's the opinion of Leon Klinghoffer's daughters whose view of their father's murder does not take kindly to the portrayal of the atrocity and the sympathies it attempts to unleash from the audience in the controversial opera written by American composer John Adams, premiered at the Metropolitan Opera this week. Their opinion is widely shared, and on the other hand, just as widely damned as a critique on the freedom of expression and the arts.

Their father, Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old New Yorker, disabled and confined to a wheelchair was aboard the Achille Lauro Italian cruise ship with their mother when it was hijacked by four Palestine Liberation Organization terrorists in 1985. The terrorists held no Jews in high regard, particularly not one who returned their contempt, doubly. The elderly handicapped man was shot, and wheeled with his wheelchair off the ship into the embracing ocean which buried him.

In the opera, there is sympathy that through the perspective of many people is misplaced in the opinion of its detractors, in equating the 'suffering' of the Palestinians to the suffering of Holocaust-victimized Jewry. As though to equate the Palestinian Arabs' longing for land to be returned to them which they claimed alien-to-the-land Jews had taken from them, was equal to the death-agonies of anguished millions of Jews whose lives were forfeit to the dream of Nazi command of the world where only Aryan perfection would exist.

Rabbi Avi Weiss gathered Jewish youth around him from a number of faith-based schools to join New York celebrities like former mayor Rudy Giuliani and other local politicians at a rally planned to protest the Met's featuring of The Death of Klinghoffer. "The language [in the opera] is explosive. It's radioactive. It's dangerous. It inspires violence", explained the rabbi. Others who have joined the protest are former New York governor George Pataki and U.S. Congressmen Jerrold Nadler and Peter King.

There are those opera lovers who have concluded otherwise. And that includes opera expert
Fred Plotkin who stated his opinion: "Does this opera present the killers in a favourable light? No. Are the Klinghoffers far and away the most sympathetic characters in the opera, the ones we care about most? I believe so." A review in the Israeli online newspaper Haaretz, by Brian Schaefer, concurs with Mr. Plotkin expressing the following:

"As much as the protesters would have you think that “The Death of Klinghoffer” is all about the personal narratives of the Palestinian terrorists, it is Klinghoffer, his wife Marilyn, and the ship’s captain who are the opera’s most fully developed characters. (The captain largely narrates the unfolding events.) Klinghoffer is given several searing arias and is portrayed as a brave and righteous man. Marilyn, who at the time of the attack was battling terminal cancer and died four months later, is depicted with poise and dignity. In the murder of her husband, she carries the weight of the Jewish people. Adams recognizes and honors this by giving Marilyn the final, chilling word."

Alan Opie, playing Leon Klinghoffer, right, performs in a dress rehearsal of John Adam's opera 'The Death of Klinghoffer' at the ENO in London, February 23, 2012. Photo by Reuters

And here, I give the final, chilling word to Alan Dershowitz:
"At bottom The Death of Klinghoffer—a title deliberately selected to sanitize his brutal murder—is more propaganda than art. It has some artistic moments but the dominant theme is to create a false moral equivalence between terrorism and its victims, between Israel and Palestinian terrorist groups, and between the Holocaust and the self-inflicted Nakba. It is a mediocre opera, by a good composer and very bad librettist. But you wouldn't know that from the raucous standing ovations received not only by the performers and chorus master, who deserved them, but also by the composer, who did not. The applause was not for the art. Indeed, during the intermission and on the way out, the word I heard most often was "boring." The over-the-top standing ovations were for the "courage" displayed by all those involved in the production. But it takes little courage to be anti-Israel these days, or to outrage Jews. There were, to be sure, a few brief expressions of negative opinion during the opera, one of which was briefly disruptive, as an audience member repeatedly shouted "Klinghoffer's murder will never be forgiven." He was arrested and removed."