Pollstar: Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani joined demonstrators outside the Metropolitan Opera on Monday for an emotional protest against a musical work about the death of a Jewish man they say glorifies his Palestinian killers.
About 400 people stood behind police barricades chanting “Shame on the Met!” and carrying signs saying “The Met glorifies terrorism” before the company’s first performance of “The Death of Klinghoffer.”
3 comments:
So this is a pretty heavy article. One side a world renown Opera company choices a very controversial opera to produce about a Jewish man getting killed. The opera is standing firm saying they believe it is not glorifying the killing and all the protesters outside are saying the opposite. This is a hard situation to be in and a hard situation to navigate. So how does one proceed in this type of situation. The producing group has spent massive time and money in this production they can not just sit there and not try to make some money back.
At times people are can not see the other side of someones argument and what happens? Communication break down and you have protest?
I have no answers, just probably a few more questions.
This article IS heavy, Adam is right. I think this is an incredible opera to be written, especially because it is opera, and especially because it is at the Metropolitan Opera. So many people are going to see this production, and while I believe that it is true that it is not glorifying the killers or terrorism, it's hard to be sure without seeing it. They mentioned that the Rabbi read the libretto and that's how he knows it's bad, but there is so much more to a production than just the words or music. He truly does not know for sure what he's talking about until he's seen the production. There is this universal theory among what seems to be the general public of people who are not typically interested in theatre (and some that are) that art should be easy to digest. Hard subjects like this are never easy to take in. The murder of a Jewish man is hard as a subject historically, but just because you've killed a man doesn't mean you're not a human as well. Looking at a story from the viewpoint of the "enemy" or the "bad guy" is incredibly valuable to America as a country. Seeing that people who do bad things also have a story to tell is an important thing to listen to. I would really love to see this opera.
This is a difficult conflict to address, especially as I have no knowledge about the opera aside from what was presented in the article. Generally however, I believe that the Met could be presenting this opera without it being a reflection of their own viewpoints or coming across glorifying this terrorist killing. It is important for artists and production companies to present work on tough issues. When it comes to the idea that the Met is romanticizing terrorism, it's harder to know what is right. Even if they are, although they have come out saying that this is not their intent, is it their right to do so as artists? Even if it does offend a lot people, it has generated a conversation about this killing and I believe that that is valuable. It is difficult to pass a clear judgement here, but given what I know from the article, I believe that the Met is not only in within their rights to perform this opera, but they should be putting on this opera.
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