English National Opera faces protest over 'pro-terrorist' hijacking opera

Now, the English National Opera (ENO) is to risk public protests with a new production of The Death of Klinghoffer, based on the murder of a disabled Jewish tourist during the hijacking of a cruise ship by Palestinian militants.

Jewish groups have accused ENO of “giving a voice to terrorism” and have threatened to mount protests after the company’s decision to stage the rarely-performed work, which the opera company itself says will “shock”.

Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old American, was celebrating his wedding anniversary in October 1985 aboard the Achille Lauro, when he was shot twice and thrown overboard in his wheelchair during the ship’s hijacking off the Egyptian coast by members of the Palestinian Liberation Front.

But the company has defended its decision to press ahead with the production, despite several requests to cancel the opera.

John Berry, ENO’s artistic director, said: “One cannot shy away from the fact that this was the most brutal of terrorist attacks, and nor does the production, but the purpose of art is often to shock and challenge audiences. The story is handled with sensitivity and gives an even-handed portrayal of those on both sides of the conflict.”

Written by John Adams, the American composer, with a libretto by Alice Goodman, The Death of Klinghoffer opened in Brussels in 1991 and was met with protests and criticism for being sympathetic to the terrorists’ cause.

Both Glyndebourne and the Los Angeles Opera subsequently cancelled their scheduled performances and a 1992 production in San Francisco was disrupted by protests. The opera has been widely avoided since.

Mr Klinghoffer’s two daughters, Lisa and Ilsa, attended a New York production of the opera in 1991, which they described as “appalling” and “anti-Semitic”.

Last night, Ilsa told The Sunday Telegraph: “What we find most offensive is our feeling that the opera attempts to rationalise the murder of our father by presenting the hijackers as poetic and romantic valiant freedom fighters, when they were nothing more than terrorist thugs.”

Lisa added: “The muder of our father is still our nightmare, and not something to be used as a tool to provide entertainment and make political statements.”

Previous productions of the opera have depicted Mr Klinghoffer’s murder off-stage, but ENO’s version will show him being shot on stage.

The opera also includes an Aria of the Falling Body, sung by Mr Klinghoffer’s dead body as he is thrown overboard.

The production is the opera directing debut of Tom Morris, the artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic theatre. Mr Morris co-directed the successful stage adaptation of War Horse and produced the controversial West End musical Jerry Springer: The Opera.

“This is a drama about conflict and of course, it articulates both sides of the conflict,” he said. “It does not romanticise the hijackers at all but it does allow them to express what thoughts or feelings might motivate them. The idea that it should not be put on because anyone might disagree with what the characters say is ridiculous.”

Vivian Wineman, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: “No one should lose sight of the fact that an innocent, disabled, elderly passenger was murdered in cold blood and thrown into the sea for no reason other than the fact that he was Jewish. No amount of artistic licence should excuse or obfuscate that simple fact.”

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach described the ENO’s production as “morally reprehensible” and said that he planned to stage protests with Jewish groups outside London’s Coliseum where the opera opens later this month.

Rabbi Boteach said: “The murder of Leon Klinghoffer is one of the most despicable crimes of the modern age. To have his killers celebrated on stage, singing about the murder of a man in a wheelchair, about their humanity and suffering, while presented with such artistic merit is a justification of terrorism which is morally reprehensible.

“It is extraordinary that a prestigious cultural institution would give a voice to terrorism in this way. Would the ENO dare stage an opera about the London bombings, with the perpetrators singing about why they felt aggrieved? It would be unthinkable.”

A spokesman for the Community Security Trust, which represents the Jewish community on anti-Semitic and terrorism issues, said: “The tragedy of an elderly man who was murdered in his wheelchair and thrown overboard because he was Jewish is a totally inappropriate subject for an opera.

“Terrorism against Jewish communities is a real and serious issue and we are amazed the ENO has decided to stage a new production of Klinghoffer.”

The controversy ended the musical career of Ms Goodman, who was attacked for presenting the terrorists as complex, “rounded” characters who sing poetically.

Ms Goodman, now a Church of England priest based in Cambridegshire, said: “I did not think I would see another production of Klinghoffer by a leading opera house in my lifetime.

“People who kill and hijack do get to sing beautiful songs and the bad people in it are not entirely bad while the good people are not entirely good. It is a risk for ENO but I applaud them for sticking their head above the parapet.”

ENO is no stranger to controversy. Its recent production of Don Giovanni drew criticism for depicting the gang rape of a woman by a masked mob wearing T-shirts featuring the image of Jesus Christ.

The company has embarked on a drive to attract younger audiences, working with the avant-garde Punchdrunk theatre company and the film makers Mike Figgis and Terry Gilliam in recent productions.

The Achille Lauro, an Italian cruise ship, was en route to Port Said in Egypt from Alexandria when four members of the Palestinian Liberation Front, a splinter group of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, hijacked it, deamnding to be taken to Syria. When they were refused permission to dock at Tartus, they killed Mr Klinghoffer and threw his body overboard.

The crisis ended when Egyptian authorities offered an amnesty to the hijackers and passage to Tunisia, but American navy jets intercepted their flight and the four were convicted in Italy. Abu Abbas the ringleader escaped prison and was eventually arrested in Baghdad after the American invasion in 2003, dying subsequently in American custopdy.

HIJACKERS' LIBRETTO

"We are not criminals

And we are not

vandals

But men of ideals."

"...wherever poor men

Are gathered they

can

Find Jews getting fat.

You know how to cheat

The simple, exploit

The virgin, pollute