KPFA-FM Music Dept. ➔ John Adams on “The Death of Klinghoffer”

Analog Audio

Event Type

Interviews

Origin

KPFA

Identifier

AM.1991.02.18

Program Length

8 min

Dates

| broadcast
| 1991-02-18 | created

Description

In a short excerpt from an interview recorded in 1991, Charles Amirkhanian talks with composer John Adams about his opera, “The Death of Klinghoffer”. Adams defends his choice to dramatize the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro by Palestinian terrorists and the subsequent murder of a disabled American, Leon Klinghoffer. Criticized at the time of its debut in San Francisco for romanticizing terrorism, or simply for using an episode from contemporary history and thus being inappropriate subject matter for an opera, “The Death of Klinghoffer” has also been defended for its exploration of the motivations of terrorist acts while clearly condemning them for their senseless violence against innocents. Adams touches upon all these issues as well as commenting on Peter Sellers sparse staging of the opera, and the possible confusion that might arise when using one vocalist to perform several roles with minimal costume changes.

Genres

Operas

Subjects

Opera

Acknowledgment

Funding for the preservation of this program made possible through a grant by Save America’s Treasures, a program of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Related places

Berkeley (Calif.) (was recorded at)
Berkeley (Calif.) (was broadcast at)

Related Entities

Amirkhanian, Charles
Adams, John, 1947-