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Re-producing Klinghoffer: Opera and Arab Identity before and after 9/11

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2009

RUTH SARA LONGOBARDI
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Abstract

John Adams's opera The Death of Klinghoffer stages the 1985 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. This essay proposes that the representations of Palestinian hijackers in three different productions show the opera reinventing itself before and after 9/11, when Arab identity hovers ambiguously in the U.S. Imaginary. Analyses focus in particular on distinct forms of collaboration among artists and media. In 1991 thorny associations among media produce an ambiguous Arab subject that reflects, and encourages, a capability for dialogue around the topic of terrorism. By contrast, two productions in 2003 rely on film and photograph to situate rigidly delineated Palestinian characters—demonstrating a dependency on visual media and a consequent highlighting of race that may be emblematic of a post-9/11 era. The essay concludes that different forms of collaboration in The Death of Klinghoffer can be approached as a microcosm of social and political interactions taking place far beyond the opera proper.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , August 2009 , pp. 273 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Music 2009

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