An article written by Irit Felsen and entitled “Does Opera Make Hate Less Hateful?” has been published on the Op-Ed page of The Times of Israel. The article discusses the controversial decision by the Metropolitan Opera to stage the opera entitled “The Death of Klinghoffer”, which depicts the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and the murder of a disabled Jewish passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, at the hands of terrorists.
In the article, Irit Felsen says that “more important even than the decision of the Met’s director to perform the opera, objectionable as it may be, is the critical question of the potential audience’s role.” She goes on to argue that “As the potential audience, we have a responsibility… we can express our freedom of speech, our freedom to say what will not become in our cultural discourse the new ‘not-so atrocious’.”
The full article can be viewed at http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/does-opera-make-hate-less-hateful/.
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