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Old 07-04-2014, 01:18 AM
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Nullifidian Nullifidian is offline
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Default Re: The generic "Look at what Israel's doing now" thread

This is less a "look at what Israel's doing" post than a "look at what the Israel Lobby is doing" post, but I think it's most relevant here.

The Metropolitan Opera has withdrawn John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer from its HD broadcast lineup due to complaints from the Anti-Defamation League, which apparently has no problem defaming a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and his Jewish (now a converted Anglican vicar) librettist, Alice Goodman, as "antisemites".

Peter Gelb's reasons for doing this are just precious. He defends the opera itself from charges of antisemitism (he could hardly do anything else since it was he who programmed it and would be implicated by association), but claims that the production shouldn't be broadcast because of the plain trend of a "rising tide of antisemitism" in Europe, a trend made plain because the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the ever-present ADL say it exists. Of course, The Death of Klinghoffer could hardly contribute to the rising tide of antisemitism unless the work itself were antisemitic. And I'm sure that neo-Nazi thugs are constantly to be found in attendance at Metropolitan Opera broadcasts.

It's incredibly unlikely that broadcasting The Death of Klinghoffer could have done anything to fuel the spread of antisemitism, but the Israel Lobby forcing one of the biggest opera companies in the U.S. to withdraw the broadcast and making the national and international news in the process... well, let's just say that a real racist peddling conspiracy theories about how the Jews control everything, especially when it comes to the world of arts and culture, could hardly have asked for a better demonstration of his thesis. (Yes, I am looking at you, Gary Oldman.)

Meanwhile, neither the ADL nor anyone else has bothered to object to the fact that the Metropolitan Opera is also staging and giving an HD broadcast of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, despite the fact that the character of Beckmesser is widely regarded to be a Jewish caricature, and that its composer/librettist has a far more justified reputation for antisemitism than John Adams and Alice Goodman do. I wonder what the reason for this curious omission is. Could it be that Eva, Hans Sachs, and Walther von Stolzing aren't Palestinians? :chin:

For anyone who wants to hear the opera (audio only), here's a playlist. I highly recommend it. It's a modern masterpiece. :thumbsup:

I'm giving a great deal of serious thought to boycotting the entirety of the '14/'15 HD broadcast season. At least I was lucky enough to catch Klinghoffer in Long Beach. That was supposed to be a co-production with the Los Angeles Opera, but they also cravenly pulled out, leaving the much smaller LBO to bear the whole financial burden of producing the work, something that could very well have sunk the company if the production hadn't been the major success it turned out to be. I'll be considering boycotting the LA Opera next season as well.

Last edited by Nullifidian; 07-04-2014 at 01:38 AM.
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