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the death of
klinghoffer
JOHN ADAMS
conductor
David Robertson
Opera in a prologue and two acts
Libretto by Alice Goodman
production
Tom Morris
DEBUT
set designer
Tom Pye
Metropolitan Opera Premiere
costume designer
Laura Hopkins
Monday, October 20, 2014
7:30–10:20 pm
DEBUT
lighting designer
Jean Kalman
video designer
Finn Ross
The production of The Death of Klinghoffer
sound designer
was made possible by an anonymous gift
Mark Grey
in honor of John Adams
choreographer
Arthur Pita
DEBUT
Additional funding was received from the
Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation
general manager
Peter Gelb
music director
James Levine
principal conductor
Fabio Luisi
Co-production of the Metropolitan Opera
and English National Opera
The Metropolitan Opera premiere of
the death of
klinghoffer
JOHN ADAMS’S
co n d u c to r
David Robertson
cr e w
hijack er s
t h e c a p ta i n
m o lq i
t h e fi r s t o ffi cer
mamoud
Paulo Szot
Sean Panikkar
Christopher Feigum
Aubrey Allicock
“
DEBUT
r a m b o”
Ryan Speedo Green*
pa ssenger s
l eo n k l i n g h o ffer
Alan Opie
m a r i ly n k l i n g h o ffer ,
omar
h i s w i fe
Michaela Martens
Jesse Kovarsky
DEBUT
pa l e s t i n i a n wo m a n
Maya Lahyani
s w i s s g r a n d m ot h er
Maria Zifchak
au s t r i a n wo m a n
Theodora Hanslowe
b r i t i sh da n ci n g g i r l
Kate Miller-Heidke
DEBUT
Monday, October 20, 2014, 7:30–10:20PM
KEN HOWARD/METROPOLITAN OPERA
Alan Opie and
Michaela Martens
as Leon and Marilyn
Klinghoffer in
Adams’s The Death
of Klinghoffer
Chorus Master Donald Palumbo
Associate Director James Bonas
Musical Preparation Caren Levine, Miloš Repický, Liora Maurer,
Steven Osgood, Jonathan Kelly, and Laura Poe
Assistant Stage Directors Eric Einhorn and Gregory Keller
Prompter Caren Levine
English Coach Erie Mills
Scenery, properties, and electrical props constructed and painted
by ENO Workshop and Metropolitan Opera Shops
Costumes executed by ENO Production Wardrobe and
Metropolitan Opera Costume Department
Wigs and Makeup executed by Metropolitan Opera
Wig and Makeup Department
This production uses gunshot effects.
This performance is made possible in part by public funds from
the New York State Council on the Arts.
The Death of Klinghoffer is performed by arrangement with
Hendon Music, Inc., a Boosey & Hawkes company,
publisher and copyright owner.
* Graduate of the
Lindemann Young Artist
Development Program
Before the performance begins, please switch off cell phones
and other electronic devices.
Yamaha is the
Official Piano of the
Metropolitan Opera.
Latecomers will not be
admitted during the
performance.
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Met Titles
To activate, press the red button to the right of the screen in front of
your seat and follow the instructions provided. To turn off the display,
press the red button once again. If you have questions please ask an
usher at intermission.
Synopsis
On board the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro in October 1985 on a 16-day
circuit of the eastern Mediterranean
Prologue
Chorus of Exiled Palestinians
Chorus of Exiled Jews
Act I, Scene 1
The cruise liner Achille Lauro has been hijacked just a few hours out of the port
of Alexandria, where a large group of passengers disembarked for a tour of
the pyramids. Those remaining on the ship are the old, the very young, those
desiring a rest amid the comforts of a floating hotel, the crew and service staff.
The hijackers are an unknown number of young Palestinian men. Not until
much later is it discovered that there are four of them. Their purpose is not
clear. Their actions, however, are definite. A waiter has been shot in the leg. The
ship’s engines have been shut down. The first officer has a gun against his head.
Passengers, who had gathered in the dining room for lunch, are transferred to
the Tapestry Room, which is more easily guarded. Americans, Britons, and Jews
are identified. The Captain urges calm.
Ocean Chorus
Scene 2
On the bridge, the Captain is guarded by the teenager Mamoud. Mamoud tunes
in to various local radio stations. He sings of the night, of his love for this music,
and of his memories. The Captain confides his thoughts on the nature of travel.
(One passenger, an Austrian woman, has locked herself into her stateroom,
where she will remain for the next two days.) Just before dawn a bird lands on
the ship’s railing, almost at the Captain’s elbow. He starts. Mamoud rebukes him.
Intermission
(AT APPROXIMATELY 9:10 PM)
Act II, Scene 1
It is 11:30 am. The Achille Lauro awaits permission to enter the Syrian port
of Tartus. The air corridor is deserted, as is the sea-road. Americans, Britons,
and Jews have been moved on deck to the Winter Garden, which is the only
place a helicopter might hope to land. Leon Klinghoffer’s wheelchair cannot
be lifted onto the platform, so he sits a little below the others. There is no
shade. Differences among the Palestinians are becoming clearer, as is their
isolation from their commanders. Molqi, the leader on board the ship, has not
38
revealed his orders. Everyone is on edge. One Palestinian torments some of
the passengers. Another, Omar, invokes the holy death he longs for. Mamoud
believes that their radio contacts have betrayed them. Omar and Molqi fight.
Molqi wheels Klinghoffer away.
Desert Chorus
Scene 2
Klinghoffer is shot. Mrs. Klinghoffer, sitting on the deck in wretched discomfort,
has no idea her husband is dead. The Palestinians announce the murder to the
Captain. He must inform the authorities on shore and let them know that other
hostages will die. He considers it his duty as Captain to sacrifice his life for the
others. Molqi decides that no further killing is necessary. During the ensuing
radio negotiation the Captain assures Abu Abbas, among others, that no one has
died. It is thus agreed that the ship will proceed to Cairo, where the Palestinians
will be allowed to disembark. As the ship begins to move, Klinghoffer’s body is
thrown over the side. It will drift ashore in Syria.
Day Chorus
Scene 3
The Achille Lauro has docked in Cairo and the Palestinians have disembarked.
The Captain calls Mrs. Klinghoffer to his cabin and breaks the news of her
husband’s death. She will not be consoled.
—Alice Goodman
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39
In Focus
John Adams
The Death of Klinghoffer
Premiere: Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels, 1991
John Adams and Alice Goodman’s powerful opera dramatizes an event from
recent history: the terrorist hijacking of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro and
the brutal murder of one of its passengers in October 1985 in the Mediterranean.
Four Palestinians took control of the ship while at sea, which led to a standoff
that lasted for three days. Before the passengers, many of whom were Americans,
were rescued, the hijackers shot an elderly, wheelchair-bound Jewish New Yorker,
Leon Klinghoffer, and tossed his body into the sea. The opera, premiering within
just a few years of the horrific events, overwhelmed audiences at the time, and
with the increasingly threatening specter of terrorism today has become even
more urgent and demanding. As with their previous collaboration, Nixon in
China, composer and librettist have stated that instead of chronicling history
their intention is to go beyond the facts of world events into the more complex
space of the unknown, those areas usually reserved for the unconscious and the
mythic. The drama of Klinghoffer unfolds retrospectively, as the ship’s captain
recalls what happened during the hijacking. It is a framing device similar to the
one used in Britten’s Billy Budd, and as in that opera, the filtering power of
memory affects the telling of the story. Chronological inconsistencies are patent,
as is the ability to probe unspoken motivations.
The Creators
John Adams (b. 1947) is among the most celebrated composers active today.
His works span a number of genres, including large-scale orchestral works and
film scores. Besides The Death of Klinghoffer, he has produced several notable
works inspired by contemporary events, including the operas Nixon in China
(1987, about the President’s historic meeting with Chairman Mao) and Doctor
Atomic (2005, on J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atomic
bomb, both produced at the Met in recent seasons), as well as the choral piece
On the Transmigration of Souls (2002, commemorating the events of September
11, 2001), for which Adams was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. The American poet
Alice Goodman (b. 1958) also wrote the libretto to Nixon in China. She is currently
an Anglican priest serving as the chaplain of Trinity College, Cambridge. The
Death of Klinghoffer was developed in collaboration with Peter Sellars, the
director of the original production.
40
The Setting
The action is presented as the memory of the Achille Lauro’s Captain and as
his retelling of events on board the ocean liner. The Met production is set in an
unspecified, mythical space suggestive of a ship.
The Music
While the same driving energy that characterizes much of Adams’s work is
found throughout this score, The Death of Klinghoffer displays a more somber
harmonic palette compared to the bright outbursts found in several of his earlier
compositions. Klinghoffer’s musical language derives from the psychologically
complex and symbolically rich subtexts of the events unfolding on stage: the
orchestration is highly nuanced and there are extended passages of remarkable
lyricism and introspection, including the title character’s Act II “Aria of the Falling
Body,” a beautiful soliloquy transcending realistic notions of time and space,
and the two solos for Marilyn Klinghoffer, one before and one after she learns
of her husband’s fate, which express her evolving thoughts on mortality. Beyond
the individual characters, the chorus plays a prominent role. The Passions of
Bach provided an important structural model with their alternation of powerful
tutti and intimate, soul-searching arias—an effective tool for underlining the
shift in focus between individual and collective memory. The chorus proclaims
its central function, as well as its ability to express differing points of view, in
the monumental pair of pieces that open the opera, the “Chorus of Exiled
Palestinians” and the “Chorus of Exiled Jews.” They represent, in a sense, the
twin pillars of the gateway to this complex, grave, and urgent drama.
The Death of Klinghoffer at the Met
Tom Morris’s production, opening October 20, 2014, with David Robertson
conducting Paulo Szot, Alan Opie, and Michaela Martens in the leading roles,
marks the opera’s Met premiere.
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41
Program Note
“W
e’re human. We are/the kind of people/you like to kill.” With these
words the title character of John Adams’s second opera bravely
addresses the terrorists who will soon murder him—a wheelchairbound, elderly man facing off a group of four young hijackers armed not just
with weapons but with festering hatred. As an American Jew, Leon Klinghoffer
becomes the scapegoat of his killers’ rage. The most sadistic of them, known as
“Rambo,” replies with a brutal, dehumanizing rant.
This scene from the second act of The Death of Klinghoffer uses the resources
of opera to dramatize a confrontation whose implications extend beyond the
senseless barbarity of the historical event on which it is based. In Nixon in
China, Adams and his creative partners—librettist Alice Goodman and director
Peter Sellars—first experimented with the potential of opera to open up new
perspectives on questions that are important to us—perspectives unlikely to
emerge from the media’s sensationalizing, immediate replay of one news event
until it is promptly forgotten and another comes along to supersede it.
Thus the unlikely topic of President Nixon’s historic visit to Communist China
at the height of the Cold War became the seed for their approach to the multilayered art form of opera. Adams’s earlier opera, Nixon in China, presented
angles beyond the familiar events of the Nixon-Mao meeting to muse on the
dichotomies between public persona and the inner life, between ideological
myopia and the weight of history.
With The Death of Klinghoffer, Adams and his collaborators turned to an
event that had occurred in October 1985, only six years before the opera was
completed: the hijacking of the MS Achille Lauro, an Italian cruise ship, by four
terrorists organized by the Palestine Liberation Front, which culminated in the
brutal murder of one of its passengers. (See page Ins3 for historical details of
the event.) Unlike the politically iconic source material for Nixon in China, the
Achille Lauro hijacking involved ordinary people simply attempting to enjoy
their lives who get randomly, tragically caught up in the violence of a conflict
that continues to make headline news and at the same time has ancient roots.
The opera is framed as a remembered event, along the lines of Captain Vere’s
attempt, long after the tragedy, to make sense of what happened in Billy Budd,
or the nautical tales filtered through the “everyman” philosophizing of Joseph
Conrad’s alter-ego narrator, Charles Marlow, in Heart of Darkness.
What, then, drew Adams to create an opera from this grim story? Because
of music’s ability to intensify but also to comment on and juxtapose dramatic
situations, opera possesses an “emotionally charged” power, according to Adams,
that makes it uniquely suited as an “expressive vehicle to address terrorism.”
The opera opens with a prologue consisting of two choruses. The first
represents the perspective of the “exiled Palestinians,” the second that of
the “exiled Jews.” Articulating the background narrative of loss the hijackers
believe justifies their violence, the first chorus voices the sense of resentment
42
motivating them. From its gentle, sinuous beginnings, this music eventually swells
to a terrifying fury, setting the chilling words that pledge harm: “Our faith/will take
the stones he broke/and break his teeth.”
Because of the opera’s in-depth characterization of the Palestinians, some
people have accused Klinghoffer of an implicit anti-Semitism and of condoning
terrorism. This is entirely off-base. Even a casual reading of the text would indicate
that, although the opera dramatizes anti-Semitism (and its results), it in no way
supports it.
Following the initial U.S. performances in 1991 at the Brooklyn Academy of
Music and San Francisco Opera in 1992, Klinghoffer was once again produced in
this country in 2003, when it returned to Brooklyn for a concert performance under
Robert Spano. There was also a semi-staged performance at Juilliard in 2009, and
in 2011 the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis offered the first full U.S. staging since the
original production. Last spring Long Beach Opera presented the long-delayed
Los Angeles area premiere. (See page Ins4 for a complete production history.)
The “Chorus of Exiled Palestinians” contains the first foreshadowing of the
violence to come—a musical-dramatic microcosm of a fateful pattern that will recur.
That pattern is repeated in the long scene in the first act between the Captain and
the teenage Mamoud, the most elaborately characterized of the four Palestinians.
Mamoud’s reflective solo expressing his love of music carries echoes of the gentle
strains from the opening chorus. It even gives the Captain hope that a way out of
the stalemate can be found: “I think if you should talk like this/Sitting among your
enemies/Peace would come.” At that point, however, Mamoud ominously sings:
“The day that I/and my enemy/sit peacefully/each putting his case/and working
towards peace/that day our hope dies/and I shall die too.”
But violence is integral to Mamoud’s narrative. He already implicitly anticipates
the death of Leon Klinghoffer, as does another remarkable solo in the second act,
when Omar, the youngest of the Palestinians (written as a trouser role for a mezzosoprano), sings of his longing for imminent martyrdom. The fearsome rhythmic
energy accompanying him drives toward a devastatingly loud climax.
The opposition between the perspectives of the Palestinians and Jews, which
the opening choruses establish so effectively, is only one of several significant
polarities in Klinghoffer. Adams’s score eloquently draws attention to Goodman’s
allusive imagery of natural oppositions: between ocean and desert, night and day
(all of these engendering two more pairs of choruses), between the limits of earthly
destinations and the freedom of birds in the air or the unbounded sea. Territorial
identification is contrasted with the international lineup of passengers traveling
on the Achille Lauro. Deftly using his orchestra, Adams creates haunting, delicate
lyrical fabrics that contrast with the violent tumult of the full-on ensemble.
The prominence of choruses as a structural and dramatic device creates a
collective consciousness that contrasts with the opera’s individual characterizations:
those of the four Palestinians, the Captain who tries to maintain stability amid the
crisis, and the Swiss grandmother, as well as the portraits of the Austrian woman
and the British Dancing Girl—these last two resorting to satirical stereotypes. Not
until the second act does Leon Klinghoffer come into the spotlight, but through
two arias—his brave outburst against the terrorists, and, after his murder, the “Aria
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Ins1
Program Note
CONTINUED
of the Falling Body”—Adams conveys a gripping sense of his individuality. And in
a few economical exchanges, he illuminates the bond of love between Leon and
his wife, Marilyn, who had kept her cancer diagnosis undisclosed so as not to mar
their wedding anniversary cruise together.
While Nixon in China had taken its scenario as an opportunity to ramble through
the history of grand opera—its conventions from coloratura aria to ensemble finale,
orchestral storm music to obligatory ballet-insert—the tragic narrative of The
Death of Klinghoffer impelled Adams to refine his melodic language into elaborate
shapes while expanding his harmonic palette. Although his stylistic range is wide,
it feels more integrated—perhaps because of the pervasive influence of Bach’s
Passion settings as a structural and aesthetic model. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion,
for example, establishes a grid of events that happened in the past and are
narrated but then prompt meditation on their present meaning. Its substantial
choral “pillars” map out this architecture of narration and reflection.
The Klinghoffer Choruses, in turn, are so pivotal that in a sense they usurp the
role typically identified with arias as they anchor the events of the opera. Similarly,
the arias themselves look to Bach’s Passions with their balance of vocal and solo
instrumental textures (the Captain’s opening soliloquy, for example, as a dialogue
with solo oboe).
As for his approach to word setting, Adams has frequently pointed out the
effort he takes to mirror the inflections of the English text in his rhythmic patterns.
He likewise expresses his admiration for the poetry of Alice Goodman’s libretto—
both her constellations of imagery and her mastery of formal constraints, such as
the slant-rhyme couplets of her verse for both Nixon and Klinghoffer.
After Leon Klinghoffer is murdered, Marilyn remains unaware of his fate until
the opera’s final scene. Both she and Leon had been silent throughout the first act,
but it is the music of each that remains most resonant by the end of the opera: the
falling scale of Leon’s final aria as his lifeless body sinks into the waters, conceived
as an elegiac Gymnopédie, and Marilyn’s confrontation with the Captain, her music
of grief (in the G minor of the “Chorus of Exiled Jews”).
The frequent claim that The Death of Klinghoffer attempts an “even-handed”
portrayal of the hijacking, writes Adams in his autobiography, Hallelujah Junction,
is “a characterization that puzzles me. I didn’t start out with the idea of being
evenhanded, and I suspect that neither did Alice Goodman. Neither of us was
trying to parse out judgment in equally measured doses, and neither was
attempting to make of the drama a political forum. The tragic results of this act of
terrorism permeate the end of the opera…. [I]t is the image of Marilyn Klinghoffer,
grief-stricken, alone, and bereft on the empty stage, that the audience takes home
after the final curtain falls.”
—Thomas May
Ins2
Historical Facts of the Achille Lauro Hijacking
On October 3, 1985, the Achille Lauro cruise ship set sail from Genoa, Italy,
on what was planned as an 11-day tour of the Mediterranean Sea. Four days
later, shortly after leaving the port of Alexandria, four armed young Palestinian
men who had boarded using false identities seized control of the ship, firing
automatic weapons in the air and commanding the captain, Gerardo de Rosa,
to re-route the ship to Syria.
The four men were sent by Muhammad Zaidan, also known as Abu al-Abbas,
the founder and a leader of the Palestinian Liberation Front; the original intent
of their mission remains a subject of debate. Once in possession of the ship,
they demanded the release of several dozen Palestinians being held in Israeli
prisons.
Among the passengers and crew on board (more than 400 people at that
point) were Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer, a Jewish couple from New York
celebrating their 36th wedding anniversary, and Marilyn’s 58th birthday, with a
group of friends. Mr. Klinghoffer was wheelchair-bound as a result of two strokes.
In the course of the hijacking, the terrorists shot Klinghoffer and dumped him
and his wheelchair overboard.
After a three-day ordeal, the ship arrived in Port Said, Egypt, and the four
Palestinians surrendered to Egyptian authorities, having been promised safe
conduct if they released the ship. But later, once it was discovered that they had
killed Leon Klinghoffer, U.S. forces intercepted the commercial plane that was
carrying the hijackers, forcing it to land at a NATO base in Sicily. The hijackers
were convicted and imprisoned in Italy, although all were eventually released
on parole, including one who escaped from prison but was recaptured. Abbas
was captured by American forces in Baghdad in 2003, dying there in custody
the next year. The Achille Lauro continued in use but on November 30, 1994,
the ship caught fire; abandoned by the crew, it sank off the coast of Somalia
two days later.
Marilyn Klinghoffer died of cancer four months after the hijacking. The
Klinghoffers are survived by their daughters, Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer. In 1987,
the family founded the Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer Memorial Foundation of
the Anti-Defamation League, which is dedicated to developing educational,
legislative, and legal responses to terrorism.
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Ins3
The Death of Klinghoffer Performance History
Brussels, La Monnaie, March 1991
World premiere
Opéra de Lyon, April 1991
Original production
Vienna Festival, May 1991
Original production
New York, Brooklyn Academy of Music, September 1991
Original production
San Francisco Opera, November 1992
Original production
Nürnberg, Stadttheater, May 1997
Chamber Orchestra of Geneva, February 1998
Concert Performance
Helsinki, Finnish National Opera, February 2001
Amsterdam, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, October 2001
Concert performance
TV film, Channel Four, 2001 (produced) / 2003 (aired & DVD)
London, BBC Symphony Orchestra, January 2002
Concert performance
Ferrara, Teatro Comunale, January 2002
Prague, National Theater, May 2003
New York, Brooklyn Philharmonic, December 2003
Concert performance
Rotterdam, O.T. Theater, March 2004
Philadelphia, Curtis Institute of Music, February 2005
Concert performance
Auckland, New Zealand Opera, February 2005
Concert performance
Wuppertal, Schauspielhaus, March 2005
Edinburgh, Scottish Opera, August 2005
Oldenburg, Staatstheater, November 2006
New York, Juilliard School, January 2009
Semi-staged production
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, June 2011
London, English National Opera, February 2012
Long Beach Opera, March 2014
New York, Metropolitan Opera, October 2014
Ins4
A Message from Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer
The Metropolitan Opera offered this space in its program for the following
commentary from the daughters of Leon Klinghoffer.
Twenty-nine years ago, our 69-year-old, wheelchair-bound father, Leon Klinghoffer,
was shot in the head by Palestinian hijackers on the Achille Lauro cruise ship.
The terrorists threw his body, along with his wheelchair, overboard into the
Mediterranean. A few days later, his body washed up on the Syrian shore.
Tonight, as you watch The Death of Klinghoffer, a baritone will play the role
of Leon Klinghoffer and sing “The Aria of the Falling Body” as he artfully falls
into the sea. Competing choruses will highlight Jewish and Palestinian narratives
of suffering and oppression, selectively presenting the complexities of the ArabIsraeli conflict. The terrorists, portrayed by four distinguished opera singers, will
be given a back story, an “explanation” for their brutal act of terror and violence.
We are strong supporters of the arts and believe that theater and music
can play a critical role in examining and understanding significant world
events. The Death of Klinghoffer does no such thing. It presents false moral
equivalencies without context and offers no real insight into the historical reality
and the senseless murder of an American Jew. It rationalizes, romanticizes, and
legitimizes the terrorist murder of our father. Our family was not consulted by
the composer and librettist and had no role in the development of the opera.
Our father was one of the first American victims of Middle Eastern terrorism.
Nearly three decades later, after Pan Am 103, 9/11, and countless other attacks and
threats, Americans live under the deadly threat of terrorism each and every day.
For our family, the impact of terrorism is obviously deeply personal. We lost
our father because of the violent political agenda of these terrorists. The trauma
of his murder never goes away. Our father was caring, creative, thoughtful, and
smart. As a young man, he invented the rotisserie oven, the first of its kind. After
his stroke, our father continued to use his one good arm to repair anything
that needed fixing. With the help of our mother, he never allowed his disability
to limit his enjoyment of good times with his family and friends, who meant
everything to him. He loved life and lived it to the fullest. He was an inspiration
to us. It is particularly sad that the life of such a vibrant and gentle man could
end suddenly in such a hate-filled and violent manner. Our father is also a universal symbol of the threat terrorism poses to our
societies, our values, and our lives. Indeed, we have dedicated our lives since
this tragedy to educating about terrorism, and putting a personal face on the
victims and their families.
Terrorism cannot be rationalized. It cannot be understood. It can never be
tolerated as a vehicle for political expression or grievance. Unfortunately, The
Death of Klinghoffer does all this, and sullies the memory of a fine, principled,
sweet man in the process.
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Ins5
The Cast and Creative Team
John Adams
composer (worcester , massachusetts)
The Death of Klinghoffer at the Met.
Doctor Atomic (composer debut, 2008), Nixon in China (conductor
debut, 2011).
career highlights A composer, conductor, and writer, he occupies a unique position
in the world of classical music. His groundbreaking operatic works Nixon in China and
The Death of Klinghoffer have been produced worldwide and have been followed more
recently by Doctor Atomic and A Flowering Tree. His other theatrical and symphonic works
include Harmonium, Grand Pianola Music, Harmonielehre, and El Dorado, all created for
and premiered by the San Francisco Symphony; the 1995 song-play I Was Looking at the
Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky; a multilingual retelling of the nativity story, El Niño, in
2000; On the Transmigration of Souls in 2002; Dharma at Big Sur for electronic violin and
orchestra in 2003; My Father Knew Charles Ives; and City Noir, which received its premiere
in 2009 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Among his recent works are the oratorio The
Gospel According to the Other Mary (2012), Absolute Jest (2012), and a new Saxophone
Concerto (2013). His autobiography, Hallelujah Junction, was published in 2008.
this season
met productions
David Robertson
conductor (santa monica , california )
The Death of Klinghoffer at the Met, a concert performance of Aida and
additional engagements with the St. Louis Symphony, as well as concerts with the Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra and Orchestre National de France.
met appearances Le Nozze di Figaro, Billy Budd, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Carmen,
The Makropulos Case (debut, 1996), and Two Boys.
career highlights This year he celebrates his tenth season as Music Director of the St. Louis
Symphony and became Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Sydney Symphony
Orchestra. With over 50 operas in his repertoire he has appeared at many of the world’s
leading opera houses, including La Scala, Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, Paris’s Châtelet,
Hamburg State Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Lyon Opera, and San Francisco Opera. Previous
posts include Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon and Music Director of
Paris’s Ensemble Intercontemporain.
this season
Ins6
Tom Morris
director (bristol , england)
The Death of Klinghoffer for his debut at the Met.
He is Artistic Director of the Bristol Old Vic, has been Associate Director
of London’s National Theatre since 2004, and was Artistic Director of the Battersea Arts
Centre from 1995 to 2004. Direction at Bristol Old Vic includes Swallows and Amazons,
Juliet and Her Romeo, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (also at Kennedy Center and
at Italy’s Spoleto Festival). Elsewhere he has directed The Death of Klinghoffer (English
National Opera), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (National Theatre), War Horse (as codirector for the National Theatre with productions in London’s West End and on Broadway,
winner of the 2011 Tony Award for best director), and written and adapted A Matter of Life
and Death (National Theatre), Nights at the Circus, and The Wooden Frock (Kneehigh), all
with Emma Rice. He also produced Coram Boy (National Theatre) and Jerry Springer: The
Opera for Battersea Arts Centre.
this season
career highlights
Tom Pye
set designer (lincoln, england)
The Death of Klinghoffer at the Met.
Eugene Onegin (debut, 2003).
career highlights Work on Broadway includes The Testament of Mary, All My Sons, Top
Girls, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Glass Menagerie, Medea, and Fiddler on the Roof (Tony
Award nomination). Opera credits include Così fan tutte, Judith Weir’s Miss Fortune
(Bregenz Festival and Covent Garden); Death in Venice (La Scala, Premio Franco Abbiati
della Critica Musicale Italiana Award); Messiah (Lyon and ENO); Thebans, Henze’s Elegy
for Young Lovers, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (ENO); The Cunning Little Vixen (Glyndebourne);
and Così fan tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Don Giovanni (Lyon Opera). Other recent
credits include Witness Uganda (American Repertory Theater), John Gabriel Borkman
(Abbey Theatre/BAM); The Wolf from the Door, The Low Road, and NSFW, (Royal Court);
Sinatra (West End); Juliet and Her Romeo (Bristol Old Vic); Shoes (Sadler’s Wells); Mother
Courage, Major Barbara, and Measure for Measure (Royal National Theatre); Happy
Days (Royal National, BAM, world tour); Julius Caesar (Barbican Centre, Paris, Madrid);
Powerbook (London, Paris, Rome); and The Angel Project (London, Australia, and Lincoln
Center Festival).
this season
met production
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The Cast and Creative Team
CONTINUED
Laura Hopkins
costume designer (k ansas city, missouri)
The Death of Klinghoffer for her debut at the Met.
She often works as a set and costume designer and her credits include
The Seagull (Headlong Theatre), A Farewell to Arms (Imitating the Dog Theatre Company,
where she is also an Associate Artist), Così fan tutte (English National Opera, costumes),
Too Clever By Half (Royal Exchange Theatre), Juliet and Her Romeo (Bristol Old Vic), Shoes
(Sadler’s Wells Theatre, costumes), King Lear (National Theatre, Chile) and Black Watch
(National Theatre of Scotland and international tour), Faustus (Headlong Theatre, winner
of the 2004 TMA Award for Best Design), and Othello, Stockholm, and Beautiful Burnout
(Frantic Assembly). Opera work includes Così fan tutte for English National Opera (sets
and costumes), The Rake’s Progress for Welsh National Opera (sets), L’Elisir d’Amore for
New Zealand Opera (sets), and Falstaff for Opera North and English National Opera (sets).
this season
career highlights
Jean Kalman
lighting designer (paris , france)
Macbeth and The Death of Klinghoffer at the Met.
Eugene Onegin (2013), Attila, Don Giovanni, and Eugene Onegin
(debut, 1997).
career highlights Guillaume Tell, Die Zauberflöte and Parsifal in Amsterdam, The Magic
Flute and The Death of Klinghoffer at the English National Opera, Iphigénie en Aulide and
Iphigénie en Tauride in Brussels, Pelléas et Mélisande in Rome, La Traviata at the Vienna
Festival, Les Contes d’Hoffmann at La Scala, Don Giovanni in Lyon, Médée at the Théâtre
de Champs-Élysées, Carmen for Paris’s Opéra Comique, La Damnation de Faust in Naples,
Alcina at La Scala, Death in Venice in Brussels, and La Juive for the Paris Opera. His work in
the theater includes Festen for London’s Almeida Theatre, Cabaret in London’s West End,
The Year of Magical Thinking on Broadway and at London’s National Theatre, and Peter
Brook’s productions of The Cherry Orchard, The Mahabharata, The Tempest, Macbeth,
and King Lear for the National Theatre. He has also lit numerous works for the Royal Court
Theatre including, most recently, The Low Road. He received an Olivier Award in 1991 for
Richard III and White Chameleon and the 2004 Evening Standard Award for Festen and is
an Associate Artist at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
this season
met productions
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Finn Ross
video designer (london, england)
this season The Death of Klinghoffer at the Met and The Curious Incident of the Dog in
the Night-Time on Broadway.
met production Eugene Onegin (debut, 2013).
career highlights He recently shared the 2014 Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design
with Tim Lutkin for Chimerica and shared the 2013 Olivier for Best Set Design with Bunny
Christie for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Additional recent work
includes director Mike Nichols’s Broadway production of Pinter’s Betrayal and Rupert
Goold’s London production of American Psycho. Additional credits include American Lulu
and Das Portrait (Bregenz Festival), The Death of Klinghoffer and Death in Venice (English
National Opera), A Dog’s Heart and The Magic Flute (Netherlands Opera), The Master
and Margarita and Shunkin (Complicite), La Clemenza di Tito and The Adventures of Mr.
Broucˇek (Opera North), Béatrice et Bénédict and The Turn of the Screw (Vienna’s Theater
an der Wien), Rinaldo and Knight Crew (Glyndebourne), Damned By Despair and Green
Land (National Theatre), and The Lady from the Sea (Scottish Opera).
Mark Grey
sound designer (vienna , austria )
The Death of Klinghoffer at the Met.
Doctor Atomic (debut, 2008).
career highlights Recent projects include sound design for Weinberg’s The Passenger
for Houston Grand Opera and Lincoln Center Festival, Oklahoma! and The Sound of
Music for Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Adams’s El Niño and The Gospel Acording to
the Other Mary. He also designed sound for The Death of Klinghoffer for his debut at
English National Opera, The Bonesetter’s Daughter at the San Francisco Opera, and (as
sound designer and artistic collaborator) for Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls.
Additional performances include works at Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, London’s Royal
Albert Hall and Barbican Centre, Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, and Amsterdam’s
Concertgebouw. He designed the sound for the world premiere of Doctor Atomic at the
San Francisco Opera in 2005. He made his Carnegie Hall debut as a composer in 2003,
and has been commissioned by Brussels’s La Monnaie to write an opera based on Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein, scheduled to premiere in spring 2016.
this season
met production
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43
The Cast and Creative Team
CONTINUED
Arthur Pita
choreographer (london, england)
The Death of Klinghoffer for his debut at the Met.
Born in South Africa and trained at London Contemporary Dance School, the Portuguese
choreographer works internationally on his own productions, as well as on commissions,
theater, opera, musicals, and film. He has worked with companies including ROH2, Ballet
Black, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Candoco Dance Company, Bare Bones, and Theatre Rites.
He recently choreographed a duet, Facada, for dancers Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev.
For London’s Royal Opera he has choreographed Carmen and La Donna del Lago. He
is currently Associate Artist for DanceEast at the Jerwood Dance House. His work has
also been seen at English National Opera, National Theatre, Young Vic, Paris’s Théâtre
du Châtelet, Barcelona’s Liceu, Los Angeles Opera, on Broadway, and in the West End.
His dance theater adaptation The Metamorphosis (for ROH2) was performed in New
York at the Joyce Theater and was also nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New
Dance Production. It won the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Dance as well as the 2012 UK
National Dance Award for Best Modern Choreography.
this season
Michaela Martens
mezzo - soprano (seattle, washington)
Marilyn Klinghoffer in The Death of Klinghoffer, Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle,
and Gertrude in Hansel and Gretel at the Met, Gertrude with Munich’s Bavarian State
Opera, and Herodias in Salome with the Santa Fe Opera.
met appearances Kundry in Parsifal, the Aunt in Jenu
˚ fa (debut, 2007), Second Norn in
Götterdämmerung, the Countess in Andrea Chénier, and Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor.
career highlights Recent performances include Ortrud in Lohengrin at the Vienna State
Opera and in Graz, Kostelnicka in Jenu˚fa in Zurich, and Gertrude and Marilyn Klinghoffer
with English National Opera. She has also sung the Nurse in Die Frau ohne Schatten at the
Lyric Opera of Chicago, Judith and Kostelnicka with English National Opera, Margarethe
in Schumann’s Genoveva at Bard’s SummerScape Festival, and the Voice of the Queen in
Basil Twist’s production of Respighi’s La Bella Dormente nel Bosco at the Spoleto Festival
USA and Lincoln Center Festival.
this season
44
Aubrey Allicock
bass - baritone (tucson, arizona )
Mamoud in The Death of Klinghoffer for his Met debut, as well as debuts with
the Seattle Opera as Angelotti in Tosca, Berlin’s Komische Oper as Escamillo in Carmen,
Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in performances of The Classical Style, and with the Los Angeles
Chamber Orchestra.
career highlights Recent performances include Argante in Rinaldo for his debut at the
Glyndebourne Opera, The Classical Style at California’s Ojai Festival, and Young Emile in
Terence Blanchard’s Champion, Mad Duck in Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland, Zaretsky
in Eugene Onegin, and Mamoud with Opera Theater of St. Louis. He has also appeared
with the Phoenix Symphony, sung Carmina Burana at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, and
the Forrester in Janácˇek’s The Cunning Little Vixen and Tiridate in Handel’s Radamisto at
the Juilliard School.
this season
Ryan Speedo Green
bass - baritone (suffolk , virginia )
“Rambo” in The Death of Klinghoffer at the Met and Sparafucile in Rigoletto
and Don Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Vienna State Opera.
met appearances Bonze in Madama Butterfly, the Jailer in Tosca, Second Knight in Parsifal,
and Mandarin in Turandot (debut, 2013).
career highlights
Recent performances include debuts with the Boston Symphony
Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Father-in-Law in Milhaud’s Le Pauvre
Matelot and Zuniga in Carmen with the National Symphony Orchestra at Wolf Trap Opera.
He has also sung the Commendatore in Don Giovanni at the Juilliard School, Colline in
La Bohème with Central City Opera, and Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola with Opera
Colorado. He is a graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.
this season
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45
metopera.org 212.362.6000
The Cast and Creative Team
CONTINUED
Jesse Kovarsky
dancer (chicago, illinois)
Omar in The Death of Klinghoffer for his Met debut.
After graduating from Skidmore College in dance and art history,
he moved to London where he become a member of Transitions Dance Company and
received his masters degree in performance from Trinity Laban Conservatory of Music
and Dance. He has performed works by Russell Maliphant and toured internationally
with Dublin’s, award-winning dance theatre company Junk Ensemble in The Falling Song.
He is a performer with Punchdrunk Theater Company, appearing in The Drowned Man:
A Hollywood Fable and Sleep No More. Film Credits include Anna Karenina and The
Muppets Most Wanted. He made his debut with English National Opera in 2012 as Omar.
this season
career highlights
Alan Opie
baritone (redruth, england)
Leon Klinghoffer in The Death of Klinghoffer and Baron Mirko Zeta in The
Merry Widow at the Met, Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with the Colorado Symphony
Orchestra, and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
met performances
Fieramosca in Benvenuto Cellini, Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier,
Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and Balstrode in Peter Grimes (debut, 1994).
career highlights He has sung Germont in La Traviata with Welsh National Opera, Elgar’s
King Olaf with the Bergen Philharmonic, Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
at the Bayreuth Festival, the title role of Falstaff with English National Opera, Sharpless at
Covent Garden and Welsh National Opera, the title role of Rigoletto with Opera North
and Opera Company of Philadelphia, Scarpia in Tosca with Canadian Opera Company,
Leon Klinghoffer with English National Opera, and Dr. Kolenat´y in The Makropulos Case
at La Scala. He has also sung at Paris’s Bastille Opera, Berlin’s Deutsche Staatsoper, Lyric
Opera of Chicago, and Los Angeles Opera.
this season
Visit metopera.org
47
CREATE A N O P E R AT I C L E GACY
A scene from Die Zauberflöte
PHOTO: CORY WEAVER/METROPOLITAN OPER A
Plan Big
Did you know there are three simple ways
to make a gi to the Met that will truly have
an impact?
· Give to the Pooled Income Fund and receive
income for life (and save on taxes, too).
· Make the Met a beneficiary of your IRA,
401(k) or other retirement plan.
· Include the Met in your will or trust.
To learn more about the Met’s planned giving opportunities,
call us at 212.870.7388, email us at [email protected],
or visit us online at metopera.org/legacy.
The Cast and Creative Team
CONTINUED
Sean Panikkar
tenor (bloomsburg , pennsylvania )
this season Molqui in The Death of Klinghoffer at the Met, Nikolaus Sprink in Kevin Puts’s
Silent Night at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at the Glimmerglass
Festival, and a return to Carnegie Hall with the Collegiate Chorale of New York in The
Road of Promise, a concert adaptation by Ed Harsh of Kurt Weill and Franz Werfel’s The
Eternal Road.
met appearances Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Brighella in Ariadne auf Naxos, Tybalt
in Roméo et Juliette, and Edmondo in Manon Lescaut (debut, 2008).
career highlights
Recent engagements include Rodolfo in La Bohème at London’s
Royal Albert Hall, Macduff in Macbeth with Palm Beach Opera, Tamino with Pittsburgh
Opera, and Nadir in Les Pêcheurs de Perles with Fort Worth Opera. He has also sung
with Washington National Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. He is a member of the operatic tenor group
Forte, which had its debut in 2013 on television’s America’s Got Talent.
Paulo Szot
baritone (são paulo, brazil )
The Captain in The Death of Klinghoffer at the Met, Escamillo in Carmen at
the Glyndebourne Festival, and Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro on tour with the
Aix-en-Provence Festival.
met appearances Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus, Lescaut in Manon, Escamillo, and Kovalyov
in The Nose (debut, 2010).
career highlights Recent performances include the title role of Eugene Onegin with
Australian Opera, Filip Filippovich in Alexander Raskatov’s A Dog’s Heart for his debut at
La Scala, Kovalyov for his debut with the Rome Opera, and Escamillo at the San Francisco
Opera. He sang Emile de Becque in the Broadway revival of South Pacific (for which he
won the 2008 Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical) and has also appeared as Guglielmo
in Così fan tutte at the Paris Opera; Eugene Onegin, Donato in Menotti’s Maria Golovin,
and Danilo in The Merry Widow in Marseille; des Grieux in Massenet’s Le Portrait de
Manon in Barcelona; Marcello in La Bohème in Bordeaux; and Don Giovanni in Dallas,
Washington, and Bordeaux.
this season
Visit metopera.org
49
Facilities and Services
THE ARNOLD AND MARIE SCHWARTZ GALLERY MET
Art gallery located in the South Lobby featuring leading artists. Open Monday through Friday,
6pm through last intermission; Saturday, noon through last intermission of evening performances.
ASSISTIVE LISTENING SYSTEM
Wireless headsets that work with the Sennheiser Infrared Listening System to amplify sound are available
in the South Check Room (Concourse level) before performances. Major credit card or driver’s license
required for deposit.
BINOCULARS
For rent at South Check Room, Concourse level.
BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED
Large print programs are available free of charge from the ushers. Braille synopses of many operas are
available free of charge. Please contact an usher. Affordable tickets for no-view score desk seats may be
purchased by calling the Metropolitan Opera Guild at 212-769-7028.
BOX OFFICE
Monday–Saturday, 10am–8pm; Sunday, noon–6pm. The Box Office closes at 8pm on non-performance
evenings or on evenings with no intermission. Box Office Information: 212-362-6000.
CHECK ROOM
On Concourse level (Founders Hall).
FIRST AID
Doctor in attendance during performances; contact an usher for assistance.
LECTURE SERIES
Opera-related courses, pre-performance lectures, master classes, and more are held throughout the
Met performance season at the Opera Learning Center. For tickets and information, call 212-769-7028.
LOST AND FOUND
Security office at Stage Door. Monday–Friday, 2pm–4pm; 212-799-3100, ext. 2499.
MET OPERA SHOP
The Met Opera Shop is adjacent to the North Box Office, 212-580-4090. Open Monday–Saturday,
10am–final intermission; Sunday, noon–6pm.
PUBLIC TELEPHONES
Telephones with volume controls and TTY Public Telephone located in Founders Hall on the Concourse
level.
RESTAURANT AND REFRESHMENT FACILITIES
The Grand Tier Restaurant at the Metropolitan Opera features creative contemporary American cuisine,
and the Revlon Bar offers panini, crostini, and a full service bar. Both are now open two hours prior
to the Metropolitan Opera curtain time to any Lincoln Center ticket holder for pre-curtain dining.
Pre-ordered intermission dining is also available for Metropolitan Opera ticket holders. For reservations
please call 212-799-3400.
RESTROOMS
Wheelchair-accessible restrooms are located on the Dress Circle, Grand Tier, Parterre, and Founders Hall
levels.
SEAT CUSHIONS
Available in the South Check Room. Major credit card or driver’s license required for deposit.
SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS
For information contact the Metropolitan Opera Guild Education Department, 212-769-7022.
SCORE-DESK TICKET PROGRAM
Tickets for score desk seats in the Family Circle boxes may be purchased by calling the Metropolitan
Opera Guild at 212-769-7028. These no-view seats provide an affordable way for music students to study
an opera’s score during a live performance.
TOUR GUIDE SERVICE
Backstage tours of the Opera House are held during the Met performance season on most weekdays at
3:15pm, and on select Sundays at 10:30am and/or 1:30pm. For tickets and information, call 212-769-7028.
Tours of Lincoln Center daily; call 212-875-5351 for availability.
WEBSITE
www.metopera.org
WHEELCHAIR ACCOMMODATIONS
Telephone 212-799-3100, ext. 2204. Wheelchair entrance at Concourse level.
The exits indicated by a red light and the sign nearest the seat
you occupy are the shortest routes to the street. In the event of
fire or other emergency, please do not run—walk to that exit.
In compliance with New York City Department of Health
regulations, smoking is prohibited in all areas of this theater.
Patrons are reminded that in deference to the performing artists
and the seated audience, those who leave the auditorium during
the performance will not be readmitted while the performance
is in progress.
50
The photographing or sound recording of any performance, or
the possession of any device for such photographing or sound
recording inside this theater, without the written permission
of the management, is prohibited by law. Offenders may be
ejected and liable for damages and other lawful remedies.
Use of cellular telephones and electronic devices for any purpose,
including email and texting, is prohibited in the auditorium at all
times. Please be sure to turn off all devices before entering the
auditorium.