Surviving the Wreck: Herman Melville, The Death of Klinghoffer, and the Power of Catastrophe
Alice Goodman’s libretto for The Death of Klinghoffer, John Adams’s second opera, is replete with echoes of Melville; similarities with Moby-Dick abound in terms of plot and because both works appear shrouded in an atmosphere of moral uncertainty and metaphysical doubt. Does this mean that Goodman’s...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès
2022-10-01
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| Series: | Miranda: Revue Pluridisciplinaire du Monde Anglophone |
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| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/miranda/47706 |
| Summary: | Alice Goodman’s libretto for The Death of Klinghoffer, John Adams’s second opera, is replete with echoes of Melville; similarities with Moby-Dick abound in terms of plot and because both works appear shrouded in an atmosphere of moral uncertainty and metaphysical doubt. Does this mean that Goodman’s Klinghoffer libretto can be regarded as a creative reimagining of Melville’s great novel? The following paper answers this question in the negative. Goodman’s text does not rewrite Melville’s narrative; it is haunted by it as by some obscure, unimaginable trauma of which the Achille Lauro’s tragic fate, like the Pequod’s, is a terrifying manifestation. |
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| ISSN: | 2108-6559 |