In praise of … The Death of Klinghoffer

Better late than never, but too late all the same, The Death of Klinghoffer finally reached the English stage this weekend. It is more than 25 years since composer John Adams and librettist Alice Goodman – of Nixon in China fame – were commissioned to write an opera on the murder of an elderly Jewish American during a Palestinian terrorist hijack in 1985. But when Klinghoffer was premiered in Brooklyn in 1991, there were charges of antisemitism and opera houses took fright. Plans to perform parts of it in Boston after 9/11 reignited the furore. Now the tide is turning. A St Louis performance last year was the first in the US for 20 years. Now English National Opera has brought Klinghoffer here. And rightly so, for the opera is a serious, beautiful and nuanced work that engages with one of the intractable tragedies of our era. All credit to ENO for helping make amends to a piece which is, as our music critic says elsewhere, a major achievement.