Editing John Adams (composer) (section)

==Critical reception==
===Overview===
Adams won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003 for ''[[On the Transmigration of Souls]]''.<ref name=pulitzer/> Response to his output as a whole has been more divided, and Adams's works have been called both brilliant and boring in reviews that stretch across both ends of the rating spectrum. ''[[Shaker Loops]]'' has been called "hauntingly ethereal", while 1999's ''[[Naïve and Sentimental Music]]'' has been called "an exploration of a marvelously extended spinning melody".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thestandingroom.com/blog/2004/10/long_ride_in_a_.html|title=Long Ride in a Stalled Machine.|publisher=Thestandingroom.com|access-date=September 22, 2014|archive-date=July 11, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711075256/http://www.thestandingroom.com/blog/2004/10/long_ride_in_a_.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' called 1996's ''[[Hallelujah Junction]]'' "a two-piano work played with appealingly sharp edges", and 2001's ''[[American Berserk]]'' "a short, volatile solo piano work".<ref>{{cite news |last=Kozinn |first=Allan |author-link=Allan Kozinn |date=March 23, 2005 |title=Beyond Minimalism: The Later Works of John Adams |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/23/arts/music/23adam.html |access-date=February 11, 2009 }}</ref>

The most critically divisive pieces in Adams's collection are his historical operas. At first release, ''Nixon in China'' received mostly negative press. In ''The New York Times'', [[Donal Henahan]] called the [[Houston Grand Opera]] world premiere of the work "worth a few giggles but hardly a strong candidate for the standard repertory" and "visually striking but coy and insubstantial".<ref>[[Donal Henahan|Henahan, Donal]] (October 24, 1987). [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE7DC173AF937A15753C1A961948260 "Opera: ''Nixon in China''"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090313005033/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE7DC173AF937A15753C1A961948260 |date=March 13, 2009 }}. ''[[The New York Times]]''. Retrieved February 11, 2009.</ref> In the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', James Wierzbicki called Adams's score the weak point in an otherwise well-staged performance, describing it as "inappropriately placid", "cliché-ridden in the abstract" and trafficking "heavily in Adams's worn-out Minimalist clichés".<ref>Wierzbicki, James (December 6, 1992). [http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jameswierzbicki/adams.htm "John Adams: ''Nixon in China''."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080210155025/http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jameswierzbicki/adams.htm|date=February 10, 2008}} ''[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]]''.</ref> But with time, the opera has come to be revered. In ''Music and Vision'', [[Robert Hugill]] called a production "astonishing ... nearly twenty years after its premier",<ref>Hugill, Robert. [http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/2006/07/nixon1.htm "Ensemble: A Mythic Story: ''Nixon in China''."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025112513/http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/2006/07/nixon1.htm |date=October 25, 2012 }} ''Music & Vision''. July 2, 2006.</ref> while ''The Guardian'''s [[Fiona Maddocks]] praised the score's "diverse and subtle palette" and Adams's "rhythmic ingenuity".<ref>{{Cite web|last=Maddocks|first=Fiona|date=February 22, 2020|title=Nixon in China review – a gripping human drama|url=http://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/feb/22/nixon-in-china-scottish-opera-review-theatre-royal-glasgow-john-adams|access-date=September 7, 2020|work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

More recently, ''New York Times'' critic [[Anthony Tommasini]] commended a 2007 [[American Composers Orchestra]] concert celebrating Adams's 60th birthday, calling Adams a "skilled and dynamic conductor" and the music "gravely beautiful yet restless".<ref>[[Anthony Tommasini|Tommasini, Anthony]] (April 30, 2007). [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/arts/music/30adam.html "Doing Everything but Playing the Music."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905101201/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/arts/music/30adam.html |date=September 5, 2017 }} ''The New York Times''. Retrieved February 11, 2009.</ref>

===Klinghoffer controversy===
{{further|The Death of Klinghoffer#Controversy and allegations of antisemitism}}

The opera ''[[The Death of Klinghoffer]]'' has been criticized as [[antisemitic]] by some, including the Klinghoffer family. [[Leon Klinghoffer]]'s daughters, Lisa and Ilsa, after attending the opera, released a statement saying: "We are outraged at the exploitation of our parents and the coldblooded murder of our father as the centerpiece of a production that appears to us to be anti-Semitic."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/11/arts/klinghoffer-daughters-protest-opera.html|title=Klinghoffer Daughters Protest Opera|last=Kozinn|first=Allan|author-link=Allan Kozinn|date=September 11, 1991|work=The New York Times|access-date=February 8, 2016|archive-date=September 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924045154/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/11/arts/klinghoffer-daughters-protest-opera.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In response to these accusations of antisemitism, composer and [[Oberlin College]] professor [[Conrad Cummings]] wrote a letter to the editor defending ''Klinghoffer'' as "the closest analogue to the experience of Bach's audience attending his most demanding works", and noted that, as a person of Jewish descent, he "found nothing anti-Semitic about the work".<ref>[[Conrad Cummings|Cummings, Conrad]] (September 27, 1991). "[https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/27/opinion/l-what-the-opera-klinghoffer-achieves-134291.html What the Opera 'Klinghoffer' Achieves"]. ''[[The New York Times]]''. Retrieved February 8, 2016.</ref>

After the September 11 attacks in 2001, performances by the Boston Symphony Orchestra of excerpts from ''Klinghoffer'' were canceled. BSO managing director Mark Volpe said of the decision: "We originally programmed the choruses from John Adams' ''The Death of Klinghoffer'' because we believe in it as a work of art, and we still hold that conviction. ... [<nowiki/>[[Tanglewood Festival Chorus]] members] explained that it was a purely human reason, and that it wasn't in the least bit a criticism of the work."<ref>Sheldon, Molly. [http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/Music-America-Needs-Now/ Music America Needs Now] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150605041023/http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/Music-America-Needs-Now/ |date=June 5, 2015 }} ''NewMusicBox''. December 1, 2001.</ref> Adams and ''Klinghoffer'' librettist Alice Goodman criticized the decision,<ref>[[Allan Kozinn|Kozinn, Allan]] (November 14, 2001). [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/14/arts/klinghoffer-composer-fights-his-cancellation.html "'Klinghoffer' Composer Fights His Cancellation"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831002230/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/14/arts/klinghoffer-composer-fights-his-cancellation.html |date=August 31, 2017 }}. ''[[The New York Times]]''.</ref> and Adams rejected a request to substitute a performance of ''Harmonium'', saying: "The reason that I asked them not to do ''Harmonium'' was that I felt that ''Klinghoffer'' is a serious and humane work, and it's also a work about which many people have made prejudicial judgments without even hearing it. I felt that if I said, 'OK, ''Klinghoffer'' is too hot to handle, do ''Harmonium'', that in a sense I would be agreeing with the judgment about ''Klinghoffer''.{{'"}}<ref>Swed, Mark. [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-nov-20-ca-6212-story.html "''Klinghoffer'': Too Hot to Handle?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250121024423/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-nov-20-ca-6212-story.html |date=January 21, 2025 }}, ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''. November 20, 2001</ref> In response to an article by the ''San Francisco Chronicle'''s [[David Wiegand]]<ref>Wiegand, David. [http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Boston-Symphony-missed-the-point-on-art-and-2860361.php "Boston Symphony missed the point on art and grieving"], ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]''. November 7, 2001</ref> denouncing the BSO decision, musicologist and critic [[Richard Taruskin]] accused the work of catering to "anti-American, anti-Semitic and anti-bourgeois" prejudices.<ref>[[Richard Taruskin|Taruskin, Richard]] (December 9, 2001). [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/09/arts/music-music-s-dangers-and-the-case-for-control.html?pagewanted=1 "Music; Music's Dangers and the Case for Control"]. ''[[The New York Times]]''.</ref>

A 2014 revival by the [[Metropolitan Opera]] reignited debate. Former New York City mayor [[Rudy Giuliani]], who marched in protest against the production, wrote: "This work is both a distortion of history and helped, in some ways, to foster a three decade long feckless policy of creating a moral equivalency between the [[Palestinian Authority]], a corrupt terrorist organization, and the state of Israel, a democracy ruled by law."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/20/rudy-giuliani-why-i-protested-the-death-of-klinghoffer.html|title=Rudy Giuliani: Why I Protested ''The Death of Klinghoffer''|newspaper=The Daily Beast|date=October 20, 2014|access-date=October 21, 2014|last1=Giuliani|first1=Rudy|archive-date=October 21, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021034720/http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/20/rudy-giuliani-why-i-protested-the-death-of-klinghoffer.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Mayor [[Bill de Blasio]] criticized Giuliani's participation in the protests, and [[Oskar Eustis]], the artistic director of [[The Public Theater]], said: "It is not only permissible for the Met to do this piece – it's required for the Met to do the piece. It is a powerful and important opera."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/arts/music/metropolitan-opera-forges-ahead-on-klinghoffer-in-spite-of-protests.html |title=Protests Greet Metropolitan Opera's Premiere of ''Klinghoffer'' |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 20, 2014 |access-date=October 21, 2014 |last1=Cooper |first1=Michael |archive-date=February 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200211234340/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/arts/music/metropolitan-opera-forges-ahead-on-klinghoffer-in-spite-of-protests.html |url-status=live }}</ref> A week after watching a Met performance of the opera, Supreme Court Justice [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]] said "there was nothing antisemitic about the opera" and characterized the portrayal of the Klinghoffers as "very strong, very brave" and the terrorists as "bullies and irrational".<ref>Bravin, Jess (October 28, 2014). [https://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/10/28/on-the-death-of-klinghoffer-justice-ginsburg-finds-for-the-defense/ On ‘The Death of Klinghoffer,’ Justice Ginsburg Finds for the Defense] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171126163523/https://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/10/28/on-the-death-of-klinghoffer-justice-ginsburg-finds-for-the-defense/ |date=November 26, 2017 }} ''The Wall Street Journal''.</ref>