IDENTIFIERS The Metropolitan Opera Chorus rehearses “The Death of Klinghoffer,” for a production that opens on Oct. 20. TOM MORRIS Director of “Klinghoffer,” addressing the cast on Sept. 15 “Before we start looking at any images, just a couple of things about the opera. It is, you will all by now know, having spent some time working on it, an absolutely extraordinary work, a work of, I think, towering quality. “And one of the unique things about it is that it does address a subject which is of global importance. I mean, you might say that love is a subject of global importance, and death is a subject of global importance, too, and all operas address those. But this opera directly addresses possibly the dominant political conundrum of our era, golbally. It’s the conflict which is at the root of an ongoing disaster. “And obviously that makes it controversial in lots of ways but it also makes it very, very important as an opera I think, because it reminds us of what great works of art can do, and what great works of art are for., “Any great work of art allows us to re-examine our world and our own lives in the company of the gifted people who have created it. “It’s also, as you know, controversial, and I will just deal with that very quickly, because as you will be aware, there are some people who say that this opera condones terrorism. And probably all of you will be faced with that accusation when you meet people [...] they will say, oh, you are in the opera that condones terrorism, aren’t you? “And from my point of view this is a profound misapprehension of the nature of the event. In other words, what this opera does is it dramatizes terrorism, it does not condone it, in any sense. “And to say that it condones the murder that happens at its heart is the equivalent of saying that the opera or the play Othello or Otello is an opera that tells people to kill their wives. “Of course it doesn’t, of course it doesn’t. Rather ,that opera and this opera investigate and dramatize what might be happening around that horrendous criminal act, and allows us to see it afresh.” ENDS