CAST
Sanford Sylvan
Christopher Maltman
Yvonne Howard
Tom Randle
Kamel Boutros
Leigh Boutros
Emil Marwa

London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: John Adams
Libretto: Alice Goodman
Director: Penny Woolcock
Producer: Madonna Baptiste
Executive Producer: Jan Younghusband


REVIEWS
"Woolcock's naturalistic film presents a vivid, realistic enactment of the Achille Lauro hijacking, fleshing out characters with back stories... Yet she remains true to the score, which is incisively conducted by Adams. But most important, Woolcock found an excellent cast of opera singers who prove inspired screen actors, able to withstand the physical scrutiny of her edgy, unflinching hand-held cameras. She zooms up uncomfortably close to them, in preparation for Adams's unflinching music, which takes us, even more uncomfortably, inside them."
Los Angeles Times

"The Death of Klinghoffer is nothing short of stunning. Filmed naturalistically by the director Penny Woolcock it comes sensationally alive. There are brilliant flashback recreations of the seizure of Palestine in 1948 and sequences that explore the hinterland of the terrorists' actions. The solo voices were recorded live on set (a real cruise ship at sea), so there's none of the phony dubbed-in acoustical effect that mars many opera films."
Daily Telegraph

"It combines the emotional kick of opera with the muscular power of film and the intimacy of television... Woolcock has completely reimagined The Death of Klinghoffer in a way that stays true to the spirit of the piece but that takes it in myriad directions unimaginable on stage... Let's hope that The Death of Klinghoffer is not an endpoint in the history of opera on television, but a marker of a new way forward."
The Guardian

"...the music is ravishing, the movie wrenching..."
New York Newsday

"The result is a triumph in both operatic and cinematic terms... Woolcock uses Adams' hypnotic chorales to explore the Klinghoffer incident within the wider historical context of Arab-Israeli violence. The moral is that inhumanity breeds inhumanity - a message embracing the Nazi Holocaust as well as the dispossession of Palestinians at Israel's founding. In Woolcock's hands, Klinghoffer's murder symbolises a never-ending cycle of brutalisation... The film is a technical tour de force, quick-cutting between ship and shore, past and present, banality and brutality."
Financial Times

ABOUT THIS DVD
WINNER OF THE 2003 PRIX D'ITALIA

The original and deeply moving film adaptation of John Adam's critically acclaimed opera The Death of Klinghoffer by Award Winning filmmaker Penny Woolcock. The synopsis of the opera deals with the hijacking of the Achile Lauro, the Mediterranean cruise-ship, by Palestinian terrorists in 1985. The tragedy culminated in the murder of a wheelchair-bound Jewish American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer. Adam’s controversial but highly acclaimed opera plays out against the turbulent emotions and violence that are as ancient as a biblical text and as contemporary as today’s headlines.

Award winning British filmmaker Penny Woolcock, working with John Adams, has ingeniously reworked the original opera, using the techniques afforded by film to imbue the narrative with realism. While shooting the main action entirely on location in the Mediterranean, Penny Woolcock has also used actual and recreated archive footage to tell the broader story of the characters before and after the hijacking.

The Death of Klinghoffer DVD contains special features which include "Filming ‘The Death of Klinghoffer" (47 minutes) & a "Directors Commentary" (the first opera DVD to include this feature!) "Filming ‘The Death of Klinghoffer" gives an in depth look into the conception of this film including exclusive interview footage with John Adams and Penny Woolcock. The "Directors Commentary" offers an enthralling journey into the making of this film, with valuable contributions from Yvonne Howard (Mrs. Klinghoffer), Christopher Maltman (Captain) & Tom Randle (the leader of the highjackers).

The Death of Klinghoffer is now available for the first time on DVD, benefiting from the presence of English, French, German, Italian and Spanish subtitles, plus the presentation of the opera in 5.1 surround!