An opera that romanticises terrorism?
It’s one of the most controversial operas ever – and it’s now the latest challenge for Tom Morris, the man behind the stage production of War Horse. In a move that sees him shift focus from puppets to Palestinian terrorists, he’s directing a new production of The Death of Klinghoffer by composer John Adams.
The opera tells the true story of the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship by Palestinian terrorists in 1985 – and the murder of Jewish-American passenger Leon Klinghoffer. It opens with a chorus of exiled Palestinians and goes on to give a voice to the terrorists in the story as well as their victims. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the opera’s always been controversial – with some critics claiming that it justifies and even romanticises terrorism.
But Tom Morris thinks this criticism is unfounded. As he told me: “The idea that a villainous character shouldn’t or couldn’t be investigated as a rounded character is absolute nonsense. From Crime and Punishment to Macbeth, great artists have applied themselves to the questions of what might motivate appalling behaviour. So anyone who objects in principle to questioning what might be motivating someone who does something terrible like this hijacking, it’s a very strange objection to make.”
When The Death of Klinghoffer was written in 1991, it provoked so much outrage that two of the opera houses that co-commissioned it decided not to stage it. There’ve been a handful of productions since then – including one in Edinburgh by Scottish Opera in 2005 and a film for Channel 4 in 2003 – but nowhere near as many as you’d expect of an opera by a composer as celebrated as John Adams. And significantly, it’s never been staged in London. So this new production here at English National Opera represents a major risk.
And with terrorism dominating headlines more and more since the opera was written, the controversy around it has refused to go away. In a statement released this week, Leon Klinghoffer’s daughters called the opera “an artistic disgrace which does irreparable damage to the memory of our father’s last living moments and to the greater cause of fighting against the kind of hatred and extremism that leads to terrorism in the first place”.
It would be easy for the intensity of such criticism to overwhelm any appreciation of the artistic merits of the opera itself. But when I saw the dress rehearsal this week, I was impressed by the direction, design and choreography of the new production. Musically, The Death of Klinghoffer is an exceptionally strong and beautiful piece – easily amongst the best work Adams has ever composed. And, although at times the viewpoint being represented can sometimes shock, my opinion after watching the whole thing from start to finish is that the team do a great job of maintaining an overall sense of balance.
Now I’m no expert on Middle Eastern politics but one thing I do know is that this sense of balance has been missing from much of the ongoing debate around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Perhaps then, opera – or the lessons it can teach us – can make a positive contribution to the debate. As Tom Morris told me: “It just might be that if we allow artists of sensitivity to explore these subjects, we might hear something different, something that allows us in a tiny way to understand the problem and the challenges differently. That’s a good thing.”
The public will be able to decide whether they think the new production of The Death of Klinghoffer is a good thing when it opens at the Coliseum in London this Saturday night. But with the actual murder of Klinghoffer taking place on stage for the first time, one thing’s for sure – it will be as incendiary as ever.
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