In 2003, Tammy wrote “The Death of Right and Wrong,” in which she exposed the American Left for its moral relativism and attempts to create a moral vacuum where there is no “right” or “wrong.”
And today, “The Death of Klinghoffer” is set to debut at the NY Metropolitan Opera.
To recap: In 1985, 69-year-old Leon Klinghoffer, a disabled, wheelchair-bound American Jewish WWII veteran, took a cruise on the Italian ship Achille Lauro, together with his wife, Marilyn, to celebrate their thirty-sixth wedding anniversary. The ship was hijacked by Arab terrorists, who shot Klinghoffer in the head, and threw his body (and wheelchair) overboard.
Via NY Post: Ronn Torrosian — Metropolitan Opera romanticizes one NYer’s murder
….The Metropolitan Opera in Lincoln Center plans to show a mockery of this brutal murder — the long-dormant “The Death of Klinghoffer.” The title gives away the show’s agenda: Klinghoffer didn’t “die”: This World War II vet was murdered by terrorists.
The show has widely been denounced as anti-Semitic and sympathetic to the hijackers. Performances planned in Boston and elsewhere were cancelled shortly after 9/11. If it wasn’t then, what makes it acceptable now for Lincoln Center to glorify the murderers of a disabled New Yorker?
….After an initial screening of the show in 1991, his two daughters said, “We are outraged at the exploitation of our parents and the cold-blooded murder of our father as the centerpiece of a production that appears to us to be anti-Semitic.
“Moreover, the juxtaposition of the fight of the Palestinian people with the murder of an innocent, disabled American Jew is both historically naive and appalling.”
In this work of “art,” the hijacker Molqi sings: “We are / soldiers fighting a war / We are not criminals / and we are not vandals / but men of ideals.”
It looks like “The Death of Right and Wrong” is as relevant today as it was eleven years ago.
New York Observer: Rudy Giuliani Will Lead Protest Against ‘The Death of Klinghoffer’
Phyllis Chesler: NY Post — Opera v. truth: The fetid fouls of ‘Death of Klinghoffer’
NY Daily News: Eve Epstein — Giving a voice to terrorists
Background on opera from wikip: The concept of the opera originated with theatre director Peter Sellars…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sellars Music by John Coolidge Adams who also did Nixon in China and The Atomic Bomb. The opera was originally commissioned through a consortium of five opera companies, including La Monnaie, San Francisco Opera, Opéra de Lyon, Los Angeles Opera and Glyndebourne Festival Opera, as well as the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Both Adams and Sellars have acknowledged the affinity of the opera’s dramatic structure to the sacred oratorios of Johann Sebastian Bach, in particular his Passions.
If you are not aware of Mr. Sellars, the link has his picture, that captures him. Regarding the reference to Bach’s Passions, So what. They seem to be saying right and wrong are just two views of something, don’t judge. No. Bach’s Passions are sacred. This is profane.
What a piece of work.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PeterSellarsOjai.jpg
Mr. Sellars directed Bach’s St. Matthew Passion just two weeks ago in NYC. (St. John Passion is the other Bach Passion work.) NYT loved the production. I credit Sellars with being a capable director but his choice in creation is very wrong. The best excuse that I can formulate for him is that to create a modern day Passion, you still start with a dead Jew and a terrorist murderer could be seen as Pontius Pilate. But a Passion is more than that. It’s a retelling of a struggle, a loss of life, but it’s a glorification because the story is a glory. Sellars made his story an equivocation. Don’t take sides. That’s the obscene part.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/arts/music/Berlin-Philharmonic-Park-Avenue-Armory-St-Matthew-Passion.html?_r=0
I suspect that the production benefited from the Berlin Philharmonic. Bach was born/raised west of Berlin in Eisenach, the very middle of Germany.
Liberal NYC artists being odd and not being able to differentiate between right and wrong … not shocking.
Tammy wrote “The Death of Right and Wrong” in 2003! OMG, where did the time go? That’s the most shocking aspect of this post.
Replace “Klinghoffer” with “JFK” and then you’ll see liberals scream.
Seven years ago I happened to stumble upon “The Death of Right and Wrong” while looking for an Ann Coulter book. I saw the picture of Tammy on the cover and had to investigate further 😉 I fell into a group of 7 other ladies who later became what we called the Tcon8. Original TAMS. The rest is history. Shout out to Pat, Ashley, Kim, Kat, Julia, Hil and Lisa 🙂 PS, I have passed the book around and around and continue to do so !
I’ve heard it said, I’ve said it before, and it bears repeating, The Death of Right & Wrong should be required reading for every American high school student. What we are witnessing is a cultural change in America. One where we must push back and call Antisemitism for what it is, and evil for what it is.
Sometimes rightwing zeal for military solutions worries me—until I think about leftwing zeal for violence. The right can work up an unhealthy enthusiasm over idealized notions of honor, duty and bravery in the name of values. The left is in a constant froth exalting revenge, hatred and slaughter in the name of justice. We can hope for a time when humankind is beyond bloodlust. Until then, it is obvious to have greater faith in the soldier over the mad men.
High five to Teri and my TAM “sisters”.
Pro-Israel Protesters Disrupt Anti-Semitic Met Opera
More on The Death of Right and Wrong front: K. Williamson, NRO, column on government imperialness when it does wrong. First example concerns police flash bang grenading the wrong man and then because he was gay, the police mocked him with effeminate pantomime, and then when he went in to the police station the next day to file a complaint, he was told that the incident never happened. 2nd page has an interesting side comment, author says call NYS tax line and you discover that they intentionally garble the tax help phone nos., so you can’t reach them.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/390971/meet-new-serfs-you-kevin-d-williamson