http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/arts/music/adapting-real-life-events-like-klinghoffers-death.html 2014-11-21 16:59:23 Adapting Real-Life Events Like Klinghoffer’s Death Creating works based on a raw real-life event, like “The Death of Klinghoffer,” holds dangers as well as opportunities. === As far as I could tell, there were no protesters in the vicinity of Lincoln Center on Nov. 15 before a Saturday matinee, the final performance of “The Death of Klinghoffer” at the Metropolitan Opera. This was a big change from the This was also to have been the day of a live HD simulcast of “Klinghoffer.” But Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, canceled the broadcast, bowing to pressure from the Anti-Defamation League, whose leaders were concerned about the work’s gaining international exposure at a time of a rise in anti-Semitic actions. As it turned out, the opera attracted intensely interested audiences and won heartening ovations, over all, for Mr. Adams and the cast in its four-week run. Though intended as a compromise, the cancellation was But with all the focus on parsing “Klinghoffer” for evidence of a pro-Palestinian slant, some of the larger artistic issues the work raises were sidelined. Two questions in particular linger for me. One involves the challenges inherent to a work that draws on a recent real event as a subject, especially something as raw and tragic as Mr. Klinghoffer’s death. Is it permissible, to put it plainly, for a composer, playwright, filmmaker or whomever to alter, tweak or fictionalize a story for artistic ends? Inevitably, the distortions will infuriate those who are in the know or were personally affected. The other question concerns the inherent power of the arts, music in particular, to explore the emotional interiors of fictional and nonfictional characters, especially bad ones, like the title characters of Verdi’s “Macbeth” and Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” or the terrorists in “Klinghoffer.” Just by giving voice to those being portrayed, music, in its subliminal way, can seem to be revealing inner lives and feelings — not just longings and insecurities but, as in “Klinghoffer,” seething grievances and consuming hatreds. An artist may feel that looking at a historical event in a fresh way will lead to a deeper understanding of what was going on. Music can do this with uncommon power. To return to that first question, should there be ground rules for adapting a recent incident into a subject for an opera, film or play? There are obvious downsides. If the work proves popular, its version of the story can cloud the truth. It’s a little uncomfortable for critics or editors who work for news organizations dedicated to factual reporting to suggest that it can be acceptable to alter the truth. Still, on balance, artists can claim the right to bend a story to their aims. There are easier, less fraught examples to consider than “Klinghoffer.” For instance, Michael Mann’s 1999 film “ Movie critics who praised the film had to take into account that the story as presented was not an entirely fair account of what took place at CBS. A film about the importance of exposing the truth seemed “manipulative itself” in places, as A more recent example was the 2010 David Fincher As Mr. Sorkin Some recent operas dealing with actual events also boldly adapted them to artistic ends. When I flew to London in 2011 for the The opera certainly has fun with Smith’s life story and skewers the tabloid culture of contemporary media. But it presents her as a determined young Texan using her assets, including sex appeal, to get ahead and mastering the personality machine, only to be crushed by it and to die tragically. Mr. Turnage’s goal was to make Smith sympathetic. That production also played before eager audiences at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2013 in what turned out to be Then there was Nico Muhly’s “Two Boys,” which had its Events are altered in this fictionalized telling, but Mr. Muhly tries valiantly to use the opera medium to get at what the detective was searching for: What drove this teenager to do what he did? No clear answer is provided. Still, at its best, the music taps into the inarticulate teenager’s sexual stirrings and confusion. Then there is the first Adams-Goodman collaboration, “Nixon in China” (1987), based on that president’s momentous 1972 trip. Naturally, whole scenes and stretches of dialogue are invented in this opera. But through music, words and the staging concept of the production’s director, Peter Sellars, the opera nails what this historic journey was all about. In terms of international policy making, nothing of much substance was accomplished. But as a gesture of rapprochement between nations vested in opposed ideologies, the Nixon visit was the political equivalent of grand opera. A contemporary opera proved the perfect medium to convey the meaning of this encounter. Few would object to the liberties, even the distortions, of a film like “The Social Network” or an opera like “Nixon in China.” But for many people, fictionalizing a harrowing event like the murder of Leon Klinghoffer in a terrorist hijacking is another matter: hurtful, even dangerous. I don’t think Mr. Adams, Ms. Goodman or Mr. Sellars, who conceived of the opera and directed the 1991 premiere production, anticipated that it would be seen as anti-Semitic by anyone but a small minority with rigid partisan views. They did know, as they have acknowledged, that depicting these events on a stage might cause personal distress for some people, especially the Klinghoffer family. The couple’s two daughters wrote a sensitive note that the Met printed in the program for the production. You can understand why they strongly object to the work. In choruses, the opera presents elemental oppositional forces, like day and night, desert and ocean. “Klinghoffer” begins with paired choruses for exiled Palestinians and then exiled Jews. The opera suggests that these groups are also like elemental forces, locked in a conflict that has gone on for generations. Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer emerge as tragic heroes: decent, giving, everyday people with profound moral authority. The opera has been criticized for getting aspects of the event and the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict wrong. And it indeed gives voice to the hijackers who fling Mr. Klinghoffer into the ocean in his wheelchair and terrorize the passengers and crew. But people can proclaim pride in their heritage and convey emotional depth while committing hideously violent acts. “Klinghoffer” attempts to ruminate on a seemingly endless conflict and on what motivated these terrorists, without in any way explaining, let alone excusing, their actions. Music, with its murky, innate powers, is uniquely equipped for such an effort, especially music as inspired as Mr. Adams’s mysterious, elegiac and searing score.