The voice of the opposition

Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, an investment banker and political operative, struck a chilling tone at the protest against The Death of Klinghoffer yesterday: "You will be made to destroy that set before we're finished. We are going to be back here—everyone here and many, many more—every night of the Klinghoffer opera until the set is burned to the ground." (You can see and hear him in the second video embedded in Michael Cooper's piece, linked above.) In 2011, Wiesenfeld, who has a long history of belligerent pronouncements, drew attention for attempting to block the awarding of an honorary degree to the playwright Tony Kushner, whom Wiesenfeld compared to a "Kapo," or a Jewish concentration-camp functionary. Elsewhere, Justin Davidson and Philip Kennicott have thoughtful reassessments of the opera, which opens at the Met on October 20.