NEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Opera has canceled plans for a global simulcast to cinemas of John Adams’ “The Death of Klinghoffer” amid objections it could stir anti-Semitic sentiments.
The Live in HD broadcast was planned for Nov. 15.
The opera depicts the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro (ah-KEE’-leh LOW’-roh) cruise ship by the Palestine Liberation Front in which a Jewish New Yorker, Leon Klinghoffer, was killed.
The Met made its decision after discussions with the Anti-Defamation League.
The League praised the Met’s decision, saying while the opera wasn’t anti-Semitic it feared it could create anti-Israeli sentiments in foreign countries.
Adams blasted the decision, saying the opera “in no form condones or promotes violence, terrorism or anti-Semitism.”
The work will be performed at the opera house as planned in the fall.
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