Sanford Sylvan

An adaptation from the controversial John Adams opera about the true life incident that took place in the mid 80s. The liner "Achille Lauro" is on a 12-day cruise in the Mediterranean. While the ship is docked in Alexandria, a maid discovers that four of the passengers are actually members of the Palestine Liberation Organization traveling incognito. Startled by their discovery, the PLO cadre is forced to act. They take the passengers on board hostage and demand the release of 50 Palestinian activists held in Israeli jails. As Egyptian, American, Italian, and Palestinian authorities bicker over the best way to handle the situation (and who would negotiate with the terrorists), the kidnappers find themselves dealing with rebellion among their captives, and an argument between the four PLO members and Leon Klinghoffer, a Jewish-American confined to a wheelchair, eventually escalates into violence.

In this modern-day presentation of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's beloved opera "Le Nozze di Figaro," acclaimed American director Peter Sellars moves the action from a castle in Seville to a Trump Tower penthouse on New York City's Fifth Avenue. Sellars's contemporary retelling of a classic musical tale is one of three performances in a Mozart series the others are "Don Giovanni" and "'Così Fan Tutte."

Though performed in the original Italian, Peter Sellars' production of Cosi fan tutte relocates Mozart's comedy of love to the neon-and-chrome glare of a seaside diner, mirroring the turbulent world of late-twentieth-century America.