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John Adams: The Death of Klinghoffer

John Adams (Composer), Kent Nagano (Conductor), Janice Felty (Performer), Format: Audio CD
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 13 ratings
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Audio CD, November 2, 1992
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Track Listings

Disc: 1

1 Prologue: Chorus Of Exiled Palestinians
2 Prologue: Chorus Of Exiled Jews
3 Act 1, scene 1: "It was just after one fifteen"
4 Act 1, scene 1: "My Grandson Didi, who was two"
5 Act 1, scene 1: "Give these orders"
6 Act 1, scene 1: "So I said to my grandson"
7 Act 1, scene 1: "We are sorry for you"
8 Act 1, scene 1: Ocean Chorus
9 Act 1, scene 2: "Now it is night"
10 Act 1, scene 2: "I think if you could talk like this"
11 Act 1, scene 2: "I have often reflected that this is no ship"
12 Act 1, scene 2: "I kept my distance"
13 Act 1, scene 2: "Those birds flying above us"
14 Act 1, scene 2: Night Chorus

Disc: 2

1 Act 2: Hagar Chorus
2 Act 2, scene 1: "Come here. Look"
3 Act 2, scene 1: "I've never been a violent man"
4 Act 2, scene 1: "You are always complaining of your suffering"
5 Act 2, scene 1: "I must have been hysterical"
6 Act 2, scene 1: "It is as if our earthly life were spent miserably"
7 Act 2, scene 1: Desert Chorus
8 Act 2, scene 2: "My one consolation"
9 Act 2, scene 2: Klinghoffer's death
10 Act 2, scene 2: "Every fifteen minutes, one more will be shot"
11 Act 2, scene 2: Aria of the Falling Body (Gymnopédie)
12 Act 2, scene 2: Day Chorus
13 Act 2, scene 3: "Mrs. Klinghoffer, please sit down"
14 Act 2, scene 3: "You embraced them!"
15 The Death of Klinghoffer, opera: Act 2, scene 1: 'It is as if our earthly life were spent miserably'
16 The Death of Klinghoffer, opera: Act 2, scene 1: Desert Chorus
17 The Death of Klinghoffer, opera: Act 2, scene 2: 'My one consolation'
18 The Death of Klinghoffer, opera: Act 2, scene 2: Klinghoffer's death
19 The Death of Klinghoffer, opera: Act 2, scene 2: 'Every fifteen minutes, one more will be shot'
20 The Death of Klinghoffer, opera: Act 2, scene 2: Aria of the Falling Body (Gymnopédie)
21 The Death of Klinghoffer, opera: Act 2, scene 2: Day Chorus
22 The Death of Klinghoffer, opera: Act 2, scene 3: 'Mrs. Klinghoffer, please sit down'
23 The Death of Klinghoffer, opera: Act 2, scene 3: 'You embraced them!'

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In The Death of Klinghoffer (1991), John Adams turns his cascading minimalism to the tragedy of the Achille Lauro. This spacious recording makes grand what seems so minor in the great scheme of things: a group of terrorists hijack an ocean liner and kill a wheelchair-bound Jewish retiree, Leon Klinghoffer. If the conceit of Adams' earlier opera, Nixon in China, seems a bit incredulous (Richard Nixon as opera subject?), The Death of Klinghoffer is genuine tragedy--Greek chorus and all. Alice Goodman is the librettist. This is one of the 20th century's best operas. A must. --Paul Cook

Product details

  • Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
  • Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.06 x 5.04 x 1.38 inches; 11.11 ounces
  • Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Nonesuch
  • SPARS Code ‏ : ‎ DDD
  • Date First Available ‏ : ‎ December 12, 2006
  • Label ‏ : ‎ Nonesuch
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000005J1B
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 2
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 13 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • C. One
    5.0 out of 5 stars Death of Klinghoffer
    Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    John Adams' Death of Klinghoffer is more like an oratorio than an opera. The way it is structured is unusual in this regard, but it is not devoid of operatic drama.
    Typical of Adams' work, this opera is edgy, full of actual historical occurrences and controversial topics that make the story fascinating. The music is also intriguing; it is not as bright and whimsical as Nixon in China, but it is far more rooted in character's emotions than Doctor Atomic. Where Doctor Atomic seems impersonal, Klinghoffer is all about the emotions of the characters involved, but with a certain darkness that is not seen in Nixon in China.
    The music, then, feels transitional between early Adams and later Adams, which probably accounts for the opera's relative unpopularity compared with the two extremes. While there are certain musical elements that were clearly experimental and did not last until the Doctor Atomic era (including a perhaps excessive use of synthesizer), the vast majority of the music is great, proving the point that John Adams is the best argument for minimalism (post-minimalism?) that has ever existed.
    As such, I thoroughly recommend Death of Klinghoffer as a magnificent operatic experience.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • David Thierry
    5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive Accomplishment
    Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2010
    Verified Purchase
    Mr. Adams once again gives us an opera to deal with and what a piece! Although the overall feeling may be somewhat funereal like a National Day of Morning the music is terribly sensitive to it's subject and the libretto provocative. The Death is not likely to replace Manon or La Boheme but it is a contemporary work dealing with contemporary realities and therein lies it's power. Adams does a much better job of writing for voice than Philip Glass does in his Waiting for the Barbarians which may give new meaning to phoned in. If you're an Adams fan it's not a hard sell. This is a serious work about serious matters. The tone is appropriate and there is much here worth listening to. Not nearly as dreary as Berg's violin concerto, I like the work very much.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Jay Dickson
    3.0 out of 5 stars Great as an oratorio--not as an opera
    Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2001
    John Adams' and Alice Goodman's follow-up work to their splendid NIXON IN CHINA was this, a very somber and sober envisioning of the hijacking of the Achille Lauro in the mid-Eighties. The work has some of Adams's most beautiful music to date, with choruses of tremendous power (particularly the opening paired choruses and the terrifying "Night" chorus), arias of undeniable facility and charm ("I must have been hysterical") and of great dramatic power (Marilyn's furious indictment "You embraced them!", which closes the work). Unfortunately, the various pieces don't seem at all of a unified whole--Adams keeps changing modes from set piece to set piece, and the thing doesn't really breathe. It doesn't help matters that the work is set retrospectively so that none of the characters seem to live the past, only to remember them; or that Goodman's libretto is much less fluid than her previously supple work for NIXON. (In KLINGHOFFER, the awkwardness of Goodman's words are best demonstrated by the fact that almost each chorus begins with the dreadful syntactic construction "Is not the...?"). The overall sense is of a work with tremendous poignancy and potential that sometimes veers into pretentiousness, without the humor and drama that finally makes NIXON a superior operative outing.
    20 people found this helpful
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  • NYC Music Lover
    5.0 out of 5 stars No heroes, only pawns....
    Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2001
    The Death Of Klinghoffer by John Adams is to my mind one of the great musical and dramatic works of the last 25 years. I heard it in Brooklyn and in San Francisco live in its first outings, and having now heard the cd's for the 1000th time, I am still blown away by the power of this score, especially in its choral writing and in its sheer beauty. Minimalist techniques are (as in Nixon in China) put at the service of the drama, and melody and achingly beautiful passages only heighten the impact of the piece. Most of all, we are reminded in this work that this is a trgedy on multiple levels: for Klinghoffer and his wife, for the captain and guests, and, above all, for the people whose lives are dominated and shaped by the ongoing, ugly and seemingly intractable -- not to mention ungodly -- conflict that won't be resolved by those that carry weapons. The backdrop of the dispute is that there are no heroic figures, no saviors, only tragic pawns and a huge array of victims. Adams brings to this sensitivity, beauty, and, sadly, an acknowledgment of the despair the world feels about the Middle East. When you listen to the choral passages, there's a level of pain mixed with anger that is truly remarkable -- something rarely found in music and opera, except in, perhaps, Fidelio, and there only fleetingly. This opera is a must for those who not only love music, but also those who say they revere and respect human life. As Henze's libretto for The Raft of the Frigate 'Medusa" concludes (paraphrased): "Those who remained, went on to change the world." That's what our response to hearing this music should be, since Marilyn Klinghoffer's rage at the end of the opera is interwoven with the same sense of sorrow and pain heard in the choral passages: how else do you rectify sorrow and pain but by struggling to change that which causes it?
    32 people found this helpful
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  • Aldo J. Rodriguez Fragozo
    5.0 out of 5 stars A great Opera!
    Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2007
    This is one of the best operas from late XXth century... a real drama, very delicate. The music is superb and the vocal treatment is really a beauty.

    No doubt - John Adams is the most important North American Living composer
    3 people found this helpful
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  • A reader
    5.0 out of 5 stars A great work of our time
    Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 1999
    The Death of Klinghoffer was described by Gramophone as "one of the twentieth century's best operas" - and this is my view also. I found this work one of the most moving pieces of contemporary music I have ever heard. It is accessible, but never shallow; musician's music but never arcane; sensitive but never effeminate. It handles issues of complexity and difficulty with a very light touch; the political furore which surrounded its performance was never justified, and not based on either the words or music. I recommend this piece to all those of open mind as one of the great works of our time.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • frank stein
    5.0 out of 5 stars oper mit zeitgeschichtlichem bezug - musikalisch ein hochgenuß!
    Reviewed in Germany on July 24, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    besonders die chöre haben es mir angetan, welche vom komponisten atemberaubend inszeniert und von den aufführenden kongenial umgesetzt werden. vorsicht beim hören: gänsehaut & schweißausbrüche nicht ausgeschlossen!
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  • bernardino Rozada Fernández
    5.0 out of 5 stars IMPRESIONANTE
    Reviewed in Spain on March 13, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Un buen trabajo de Adams, me gusta todo, pero si me quedo con algo es el esquema coral que da a sus interpretaciones. Muy recomendable
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  • Riyad Salhi
    3.0 out of 5 stars Am Ende ist ein jüdischer "Amerikaner kaput" in einer musikalisch schwachbrüstigen Polit-Oper
    Reviewed in Germany on August 14, 2009
    Verified Purchase
    Die Frage ist nicht, ob jüdische Multiplikatoren im Publikum und andere Personen in den U.S.A. "to be offended" sein wollten, auch nicht, ob es schicklich ist, zeitgenössische Themen musiktheatralisch zu verarbeiten, sondern ob es sich um eine Oper von Rang handelt, über den (dann doch begrenzten) Skandal hinaus, ob sie dramaturgische Kraft besitzt, das Libretto für sich stehen könnte, ganz einfach: Ist es gute Musik? Ist es eine gute Geschichte? Ist sie gut erzählt? Kurzfassung meiner Antwort: Nein, es ist größtenteils dürftige Musik, die Orchestrierung kommt mir lieblos vor. Ja, es ist ein Thema, das zu veropern sich lohnt, das hervorragend transportiert wird, keine Fragen abschließend beantwortet, sogar keine eindeutige Position bezieht. Doch sie ist überbewertet, wie auch "Nixon in China". John Adams ist ein feiner Mensch, der Großartiges geleistet hat, verspielt und voller Ernst sein kann, manchmal beides gleichzeitig. "The Death of Klinghoffer" ist hingegen eher für Menschen, die Oper gar nicht mögen. Die in die Oper gehen, weil sie "Ereignissen" beiwohnen wollen. Oder die glauben, sie hätten die Moderne verstanden, nur weil sie das hier goutieren können. Aber von vorne.

    Die Oper beginnt - und das ist formal schon sehr gewagt - mit zwei auf die Sekunde genau gleich langen Chorstücken mit Orchester (politisch korrekter geht es wohl kaum). Dieser Prolog gehört zum besten, was Adams jemals komponiert hat. Im "Chor der Exilierten Palästinenser" heißt es, es sind die ersten Worte: "Geschliffen wurde mein Vaterhaus / Im Jahre achtundvierzig / Als die Israelis über / unsere Straße schritten." Was dann folgt ist eines der emotionalsten Stücke, die ich mir denken kann, und es endet in Rage und Hass, musikalisch gesprochen in einer "dissonanten Doppelakkord-Appogiatur", wem das was sagt. In einer gänzlich anderen Stimmung dann der "Chor der exilierten Juden". Schon beim Einsetzen des Gesangs meldet sich mein Tränendrüsenapparat, immer noch, als würde ich es zum ersten Mal erfahren - in der Übersetzung: "Als ich das Taxi zahlte, war kein Geld mehr da / Und, natürlich, kein Gepäck / Meine leeren Hände sind Zeichen der Passion, sich ihrer selbst erinnernd." Wie Sie sehen, räume ich beiden Stücken, die auch isoliert gehört werden können, denselben Raum ein. Das nenne ich Gerechtigkeit. Dann, nach fast fast 18 Minuten erst, beginnt der 1. Akt mit dem Kapitän, der die Gäste begrüßt, ein wundervolles Entree. Immer noch große Musik. Und danach geht`s bergab.

    Was mich ungemein stört, sind die (in der Partitur peinlich genau notierten und beschriebenen) elektronischen Klänge, die nicht zur Zierde eingesetzt werden, sondern das Klangbild regelrecht prägen. Sie muten an, als hätte Adams damals Tangerine Dream als Co-Composer beschäftigt. Auch sonst bin ich über das Lob von Nagano oder Sellars, dass Adams gerade hier auf der ersten großen Höhe seiner Instrumentierungskunst sein soll, mehr als erstaunt. Bereits im I. Akt, später aber mit noch stärkerer Durchdringung blubbert und wabert der Synthesizer durch alle Ecken und Erker. Nichts gegen Elektronik, sie kommt schließlich auch im "Chor der exilierten Juden" zum Tragen, hier hingegen ist sie ein färbendes Element, und nicht wie später diese loopartigen Muster, die sich vor die orchestrale Musik schieben, dabei würde deren Weglassen niemanden stören, außer den Komponisten. Damit ist mein Problem mit diesem Werk benannt. Das ist der Grund, warum ich mich hier nicht überschlage vor Ehrerbietung. Eine halbe Sache. Ist die Elektronik gar eine allzu flockige Zuwendung zum Publikum ("Horch mal, das kennst Du doch auch aus der Pop-Musik! Das hälst Du schon durch, komm, ich führe Dich!")? Dann würde ich noch mehr auf Distanz gehen. Riecht nach Kompromiss. In einer Oper, die in ihrer Gesamtheit als "künstlerisch gewagt" eingestuft wird.

    Trotzdem: Die beiden Chöre, sie bleiben (die anderen kann man vergessen). Den Prolog sollte man sich nicht entgehen lassen, wenn man um Tonalität, Melodien und klassischen Ausdruck keinen Bogen macht. Solche erhebenden Momente finden wir weder in der furchtbar hochge-PR-ten, sturzlangweiligen "Nixon in China"-Minimalcharade, noch in "Dr. Atomic" oder "El Nino".
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