Has anyone seen this film adaption of the Death of Klinghoffer (John Adams)?

Cafe Society
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I was just wondering if anyone has heard of this film.

I have been a huge fan of John Adams since I first heard Nixon in China and was introduced to this by a friend:

I knew the opera (now I’m talking about Klinghoffer) very well and was excited to see this film adaption from 2003. I didn’t have huge expectations. I have watched a LOT of opera on video (which is a different thing, I know- a documentation in film vs a proper film) and I saw that Madame Butterfly film a long time ago, and expected something like the latter, which totally didn’t work. But this was something else. It blew my socks off. The production quality is top notch, somehow these opera singers look like and ACT like movie stars, which is a rare thing, IMHO. I thought this was just riveting and fiercely intelligent. Not flawless, but hugely enjoyable and re-watchable.

I’m not familiar with Penny Woolcock, but I thought her job was terrifically done. I thought it just “WORKED” in a way I have never seen opera on film “work”.

Although it did win a small handful of awards, I would have thought something like this could make a bigger splash. So…has anyone else seen this? Opinions?

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Yes and it is pretty good; I saw it when Channel 4 originally aired it.

Topical opera is usually a trainwreck or dates very badly very quickly (Jonathan Dove and David Harsent, I’m looking at you here) but this is a solid bit of recent history captured as a character study which avoids favoring any side too heavily (apart from the “not killing people” side) and it works on film better than, say, The Magic Flute does. Also Thomas Randle is a great singer (a weird person but a wonderful voice) and I’m a fan of Christopher Maltman as well.