— Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg appeared on stage in an opera performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Ginsburg, 83, performed Saturday night with the Washington National Opera in “The Daughter of the Regiment” by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. She played the role of the Duchess of Krakenthorp. Some…
Between “Supreme Court Justice,” “Notorious RBG,” and “Namesake of the Praying Mantis lomantis ginsburgæ” Ruth Bader Ginsburg already possesses more intimidatingly cool titles than most of us can ever hope to acquire. She’s about to add another one: Duchess of Krakenthorp. Ok, that one’s not permanent; next month, Ginsburg will be performing the role of…
On a recent drizzly Monday morning, the usual adult crowd at the Metropolitan Opera was replaced by 2,000 rowdy schoolchildren who were there to watch the last dress rehearsal of “The Barber of Seville.” Out on the plaza in front of the theater, teachers rounded up stray children playing tag. “Hold hands!” they ordered, and…
The village of Oberammergau might be the least Jewish place on earth. Nestling at the foothills of the Bavarian Alps, the town is synonymous with the Passion play that residents have been putting on since 1637, a theatrical and religious spectacle that for much of history transmitted anti-Jewish prejudice, inciting pogroms and other violent acts…
On a freezing January evening, a large crowd gathered to watch as three stolpersteine were hammered into the sidewalk outside the Komische Oper Berlin. These brass stones commemorate victims — mostly, but not all, Jewish — of Nazi persecution. The plaques laid in front of the opera commemorated Jews who were involved there before the…
General managers of opera companies, even ones as prestigious as the Metropolitan Opera, rarely find themselves on the front pages of tabloid newspapers. But it isn’t every year that the Met chooses to showcase “The Death of Klinghoffer,” the opera by John Adams with a libretto by Alice Goodman that dramatizes the murder of a…
‘So, you went to see ‘The Death of Klinghoffer,’ right?” “Uh-huh.” “Can I ask you something?” That was my mother on the phone. She had been watching a rebroadcast of “Charlie Rose: The Week” where two lawyers, Martin Garbus and Floyd Abrams, were debating the hubbub surrounding the Metropolitan Opera premiere of John Adams and…
“The Death of Klinghoffer” is among the most anti-Israel works of art I’ve experienced in recent years. And yet, it’s so intent on crafting a Cowboys-and-Indians story that it reduces its Palestinians to offensive, Orientalist caricatures. That’s right: This opera isn’t anti-Jewish. It’s anti-Palestinian. Far too much ink has already been spilled on the question…
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