Composer John Adams and librettist/director Peter Sellars have made a name for themselves as the lefties of the opera world. Their previous works, Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, and Doctor Atomic, have made them controversial figures at times. And their topical, contemporary handling of opera can come as a shock to those who consider it a cultural form so lofty it still seems as if top hats and diamond tiaras should be worn in order to witness it. I include myself in that group.

In 1991, their treatment of the Palestinian cause in The Death of Klinghoffer, which dramatizes the 1985 hijacking of the passenger ship the Achilli Lauro by the Palestinian Liberation Organization, got them into trouble. In the view of many outraged critics and citizens, their evenhanded approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could only mean antisemitism and the glorification of terrorists.

To this day, opera companies are scared to stage it.  New York’s Metropolitan Opera announced a new production of it in 2014, then buckled under public pressure and canceled a scheduled broadcast into two thousand movie theaters.