‘Klinghoffer’ opera criticized

In the wake of the recent terrorist bombings in London, a Los Angeles rabbi is hoping that audiences in Edinburgh, Scotland, will “vote with their feet” and stay away from upcoming Scottish Opera performances of the controversial John Adams opera “The Death of Klinghoffer,” which will receive its British premiere later this month as part of the Edinburgh Festival.

This production of the opera, which tells the story of the 1985 seizure of the cruise ship Achille Lauro by Palestinian terrorists and the subsequent execution of passenger Leon Klinghoffer, reportedly calls for chorus members planted among the audience to carry submachine guns and eventually storm the stage.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in West Los Angeles, says he objects to both the timing of the presentation of the opera -- which has been called anti-Semitic and criticized for “romanticizing” terrorism -- and the specifics of the staging.

“Right now, after July 7 and July 21, when there is such an open struggle in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in terms of moderate Muslims trying to take back the day, the timing of this is breathtaking in its arrogance,” Cooper said in an interview Monday.

Scottish Opera artistic director Anthony Nielsen has defended the production, saying he is not in favor of “any kind of censorship.” In an interview with the Scotsman newspaper, he refused to discuss details of the staging but said “it’s a more visceral staging of it than has been previously performed. People should come expecting the unexpected.”

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Diane Haithman