Congratulations, John Adams: You Got CUNY’d
On Twitter tonight, The New Yorker music critic Alex Ross, whose book The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century I discussed on Memorial Day, was tweeting about the protests that greeted the Met premiere of John Adams’s opera The Death of Klinghoffer.
Here are just some of Ross’ tweets.
Giuliani concedes that John Adams is “one of our great American composers” but declares that his opera “supports terrorism.” #Klinghoffer
— Alex Ross (@alexrossmusic) October 20, 2014
Ben Brafman says, “This may not be Auschwitz, it’s Lincoln Center,” but suggests that another Holocaust could happen. #Klinghoffer — Alex Ross (@alexrossmusic) October 20, 2014
Melinda Katz, Queens Borough President, says that she is “personally offended by the play.” #Klinghoffer
— Alex Ross (@alexrossmusic) October 20, 2014
Former Gov. Paterson says that “just a perusal” of the work reveals it to be “loathsome and despicable.” — Alex Ross (@alexrossmusic) October 20, 2014
I feel like John Adams and the Met just got the kind of treatment that we at CUNY get whenever we raise the issue of Israel/Palestine. The same gang mobilizes to shut us down. Indeed, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, who until recently was on the CUNY Board of Trustees and tried to deny Tony Kushner an honorary degree because of his stance on Israel, was at the protests tonight, leading the charge.
Here are some more Ross tweets.
Wiesenfeld, attacking de Blasio’s defense of the opera, says, “This is not art. This is crap, this is detritus, this is garbage.”
— Alex Ross (@alexrossmusic) October 20, 2014
As Weisenfeld talks of picketing people’s homes, I take my leave. #Klinghoffer
— Alex Ross (@alexrossmusic) October 20, 2014
Congratulations, John Adams: you just got CUNY’d.