Posted on 10/20/2014 8:42:15 PM PDT by Nachum
At the Metropolitan Opera’s first performance of John Adams’s “The Death of Klinghoffer” on Monday night, men and women in evening attire walked through a maze of police barricades, while protesters shouted “Shame!” and “Terror is not art!” One demonstrator held aloft a white handkerchief splattered with red. Others, in wheelchairs set up for the occasion, lined Columbus Avenue.
Political figures, including former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, joined a rally, several hundred strong at Lincoln Center, to denounce an opera that has become the object of a charged debate about art, anti-Semitism and politics.
But after months of escalating protests, including threats of opera officials and online harassment of the cast, “Klinghoffer” finally went on, only a few minutes late. There were cheers when David Robertson, the conductor, arrived in the pit and a few boos after the opening “Chorus of Exiled Palestinians” ended.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“Klinghoffer,”This is the seventh paragraph. It ought to be the first.considered a masterpiece by some critics, has long aroused passions, simply because of its subject matter: the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, an American Jewish passenger in a wheelchair, by members of the Palestine Liberation Front during the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship. …
The Death of America.
“Long may our land be bright/
With freedom’s holy light...”
God has withdrawn His lampstand.
PS. The man named John Adams who wrote this is undeserving of the name he bears.
Herr Wilhelm, with his visits to Castro and Daniel Ortega, is a great proponent of “the American way.” /s
Why didn’t the protesters chain themselves to the front doors, smash windows and light fires to shut tonight’s performance down? They would have ended its entire run. The time for meek half measures against “creeping sharia” is over.
Mr. Klinghoffer was best friends with Jack Kirby, the man who created the Marvel Universe.
Ban the queeran! As long as it exists so will slavery!
WHY is this even Opera material??
Seriously? Is this a joke? Someone slept through Music and Art History classes, I see.
Opera has a centuries-long history of portraying violence on stage. "Verismo" is the term for it (means "true") in the opera world. Murders, suicide, infanticide, rape, incest, drug addiction, enslavement, bloody revolution, you name it - Opera has human tragedy and violence in spades.
If you want happy, watch Orphée et Eurydice or find a Shirley Temple movie. Opera is full of violence, nudity, sex, and more violence.
Except for a few happy operas here and there, human suffering is what opera is all about, and always has been.
You’re not getting it. Plenty has been published about the bias in this “opera.” Its defenders, like the NY Times, plead for “evenhandedness.” Moral equivalence. No one’s protesting against the depiction of violence and tragedy and suffering. It is Muslim propaganda parading as art.
And as for de Blasio, no one is saying they have no right to put the opera on stage. They are just saying please don’t. You are giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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I look forward to King! James Earl Ray's positions had a world view too. I'm sure it will be a hit. This could start a trend.
Nothing wrong with protesting art. I was once at the premiere of a modern ballet at the Paris Opera that was shouted down at the end. It was exciting to see all these Frenchmen tearing up seats, booing, hissing, throwing garbage - over a ballet! The theater has a long history of protest - the Astor Place riots as an example here in the USA.>
Um...some of Mozart’s greatest operas were...comedies.
Well met.
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