For the context of this opera, read this article in Midnight East https://www.midnighteast.com/mag/?p=54852

Who would believe that the Israeli Opera would stage Britten’s War Requiem next door to where the families of hostages are camped?  Who would believe that it is being performed now, when we are hoping so desperately that the war is over, that it opens on the day seven soldiers were buried.  Who did not weep when at the end of the opera the choir raised posters of the hostages?  I don’t know – I couldn’t see anything for the tears.