The Metropolitan Opera’s decision to cancel a live broadcast of an opera about the terrorist murder of Leon Klinghoffer doesn’t go far enough — and the whole show should be scrapped, Jewish leaders said Wednesday.
“They should cancel the opera,” said Betty Ehrenberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress, North America.
“We are glad that they decided not to simulcast the opera, which is a very important step, and we commend them for this. But we are looking for them to finish their good deed.”
The Met announced on Tuesday that they would bow to complaints from the Anti-Defamation League and the family of Klinghoffer — a wheelchair-bound man who was killed by Palestinian terrorists in the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship — and not simulcast the opera on movie screens around the world.
But the work by American composer John Adams will still be staged live in the fall. Even that is too much for some, including Klinghoffer’s daughters, Lisa and Ilsa, who see the work as being “sympathetic” to their dad’s killer kidnappers.
Ehrenberg said her concerns about the controversial work starts with the opera’s title: “The Death of Klinghoffer.”
Alicia Post, New York director for the Bnai Zion Foundation, agreed.
“Canceling the live simulcast does not go far enough and the whole show should be canceled,” Post said. “Capitalizing off of the family’s tragedy is without question in poor taste.”
“I think it was a very poor choice to begin with,” said Nachum Sorkin, 71, a Jewish opera fan from Edison, NJ.
“The Death of Klinghoffer” will have eight live performances at the Met between Oct. 20 and Nov. 15.