Protest over Met premiere of "The Death of Klinghoffer"

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Thousands of demonstrators protested opening night at the Metropolitan Opera.

They say the opera "The Death of Klinghoffer" glorifies Palestinian terrorists.

Some people left the Met at intermission Monday night, but not for any political reason.

"As opera goes it's horrible," one audience member said.

"It's not really an opera. It's more of a sing-song play," another person said.

"The music stinks, the lyrics stink, the direction stinks. The orchestra's good. That was the good news," yet another audience member said.

But it's the content of the "Death of Klinghoffer" that sparked vicious protests at Lincoln Center Monday, an opera dating to 1991, but never performed in New York until Monday night.

It recounts the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, a wheelchair-bound New Yorker aboard the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985, killed and pushed overboard by Palestinian hijackers.

Some protestors believe it offers the hijackers a back-story they simply don't deserve, and even goes so far as to celebrate their actions.

"There will never be an opera equating the death of MLK, equating the death of MLK Jr. with the idiot who killed him. There will never be an opera of the death of JFK equating him with Lee Harvey Oswald. They are putting an equivalence between murderers and their victims," a protester said.

"I don't think it's the job of opera to be historically accurate," said Justin Davidson, of New York Magazine.

Justin Davidson is the opera critic at New York Magazine and defended the right of the Met to stage the production.

The Met, for its part, has maintained the opera is not anti-Semitic. But it has cancelled plans to simulcast it in theaters and online, while at the same time ramping up security at Avery Fisher Hall.

"They've said that the opera is not anti-Semitic which I think is the issue, but that it could inflame anti-Semitism. That's logic I don't really understand, why putting it on here but not showing it in other parts of the world is OK. I think that sends a very confused signal about the Met's support of the opera," Davidson said.

Police have arrested one person for disorderly conduct.

"The Death of Klinghoffer" runs through Nov. 15 at the Met.