Louis Roney: Klinghoffer et al.

• The fact that large “art ” organizations are usually supported in part by the people through their political representatives and the tax money they vote to consign, means that cultural organizations need political support in order to stay afloat. President John Adams stated that he studied government so that his children could study business, so that their children could study the arts. Such a history of benevolences has involved such people as the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, and other private wealthy lovers of the arts.

• For the second year in a row, New York’s Metropolitan Opera will begin with a protest. The protest emanates from Met director Peter Gelb’s persistence in presenting an opening production of the opera ‘‘The Death of Klinghoffer” despite incontrovertible evidence that exists in the libretto by Alice Goodman, and in remarks made by Met director Peter Gelb, and the composer John Adams, that the opera supports sympathy for terrorists, and hatred for Jews and Israel. This is the kind of news that one dislikes to corroborate. Leon Klinghoffer was a disabled retired appliance manufacturer, celebrating his 36th anniversary on a cruise with his wife. Klinghoffer, a Jew, was murdered and thrown overboard by Palestinian terrorists who hijacked the luxury liner Achille Lauro in 1985. The Palestinians shot Klinghoffer in the head.

Then they pushed him overboard in his wheelchair. “The Death of Klinghoffer” is surely not a judicious opera with which to celebrate the Met’s opening night. Opening nights are traditionally an auspicious occasion celebrated with great felicity. Ah! Art!

• I read that the Atlanta Symphony is in financial trouble as are a great many musical organizations everywhere. A symphony composition, whether Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, or Mahler can often be a work of great genius bringing all kinds of instruments together, each with its own individual sound. Such collaboration makes for some of the greatest music ever created, and ever performed. As usual, the problem in Atlanta isn’t music, but money — how to pay for healthcare’s encroaching continuance, by individuals or by the management? Ah! Art! And dollars…

• Benjamin Franklin, although never a Congressional legislator, was a prominent and important thinker and activist during the formation of what was to become the United States of America. Franklin contributed to both the Declaration of Independence (a signer) and to the

Constitutional Congress (a delegate). Franklin was our first Ambassador to France and was much admired and venerated by all who knew him. He was a Deist and this is his creed: “I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by his providence. That He ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we can render to Him, is doing good to His other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with Justice in another Life respecting our conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental principles of all sound religion, and I regard them in whatever sect I meet with them.” (1790)

• Funny, b.w. and I have perhaps 1,000 CDs, and a music room with four three-speaker systems to give us great sound, but we rarely play the CDs. Why? Something is missing. Perhaps it’s the human touch.

• Our culture is faltering. The New York City Opera, long a proving ground for young singers is now long gone. Opera companies are shrinking their seasons, or combining with local symphonies, a procedure which serves questionable cultural interests on either side. The age of audiences has risen through the years and not enough young people are buying tickets to take their place. When my b.w. and I ran a concert series for 17 years, we made a strong pitch for young people to be in our audiences — for they are, after all, culture’s future — but after we retired, the organization ran on a few years and eventually went out of business. For many years I lived and sang in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and other European countries where music seemed to be an irreplaceable part of peoples lives. Recently I learned of the possible demise of several important opera houses in Italy. Amsterdam’s world famous Concertgebouw Orchestra is struggling and may not continue beyond 2016. Life will go on in the U.S. without the great music we are losing, but it would be folly to say that our lives will remain the same.

Sports are doing well in America, and New York will play Cleveland next season, not Beethoven.