No night at the opera, &c.

Sometimes this column takes requests, and several readers have asked me to comment on a recent decision by the Metropolitan Opera. I’m not very well positioned to comment on the decision. I’ll explain in due course.

Next season, the Met is staging The Death of Klinghoffer, an opera by John Adams. But the Met decided to cancel its broadcast of the opera to theaters around the world. A Met press release said that the decision was made after an “outpouring of concern” that a broadcast “might be used to fan global anti-Semitism.” The company’s general manager, Peter Gelb, said, “I’m convinced that the opera is not anti-Semitic. But I’ve also become convinced that there is genuine concern in the international Jewish community that [a broadcast] would be inappropriate at this time of rising anti-Semitism, particularly in Europe.”

About the Author

Jay Nordlinger

Jay Nordlinger was a senior editor of National Review and a book fellow at National Review Institute.

Sometimes this column takes requests, and several readers have asked me to comment on a recent decision by the Metropolitan Opera. I’m not very well positioned to comment on the decision. I’ll explain in due course.

Next season, the Met is staging The Death of Klinghoffer, an opera by John Adams. But the Met decided to cancel its broadcast of the opera to theaters around the world. A Met press release said that the decision was made after an “outpouring of concern” that a broadcast “might be used to fan global anti-Semitism.” The company’s general manager, Peter Gelb, said, “I’m convinced that the opera is not anti-Semitic. But I’ve also become convinced that there is genuine concern in the international Jewish community that [a broadcast] would be inappropriate at this time of rising anti-Semitism, particularly in Europe.”