Met defies protests to stage polarizing Klinghoffer opera

Defying picketers and audience disruptions, New York's Metropolitan Opera has opened The Death of Klinghoffer, which explores the psyche of Palestinian hijackers who killed a wheelchair-bound American Jew.

Leading US composer John Adams operatized the 1985 seizure of the Achille Lauro cruise liner as a way to explore the dueling grievances of Israelis and Palestinians. But The Death of Klinghoffer has outraged some Israel supporters who say it unduly humanizes murderers.

In an unusually tense display at the normally placid Lincoln Center, police stood guard in the lobby and set up barricades outside the entrance where picketers sat in wheelchairs in remembrance of Leon Klinghoffer, who was shot and thrown overboard by Palestinian hijackers demanding that Israel release prisoners.