"The Passenger" poster
The opera, which enjoyed a sold-out premiere on the 19th of September at London's prestigious English National Opera, has received glowing reviews from The Guardian, The Independent, The Sunday Telegraph and The times. Reviewers pay tribute to the memory of the composer and the author of the novel which inspired the opera, Holocaust survivor Zofia Posmysz, detailing the difficult circumstances of each other their lives during the Nazi occupation and how they expressed these troubling topics with a disciplined sensibility
The opera enjoyed a successful run in Warsaw in 2010 following the premiere at the Bregenz Festival earlier that year. It comes to the Coliseum stage as a highlight of the ENO opera season, directed by David Pountney, conducted by Sir Richard Armstrong and starring Kim Begley, Michelle Breedt and Giselle Allen. Opera Magazine called it a work "that demands to be seen".
The Passenger is the first of seven operas by Weinberg, a Polish Jew who escaped from Poland, without his family, to the Soviet Union when the Nazis invaded in 1939. The Passenger is based on the real-life experience of Holocaust survivor Zofia Posmysz, who was imprisoned in Auschwitz during World War II. Posmysz’s book, The Passenger, forms the basis of the libretto by Alexander Medvedev.
While sailing to Brazil, Lisa, a former SS Officer from Auschwitz, believes she sees a former inmate and confesses her past to her husband. Interwoven with the story are flashbacks to her time in the concentration camp. Weinberg’s opera was effectively banned in the USSR and only received its premiere in Bregenz fourteen years after the composer’s death.
An encounter between two women - one a former Auschwitz guard, the other a former prisoner - plunges them both back into the horrors of the Holocaust, pitting perpetrator against victim in a moral battle between guilt and denial, retribution and absolution.
The Guardian review begins with the moving story of Weinberg's brave escape from Poland during the Nazi invasion, the loss of his family and his homeland, then trails his life among the Soviet intelligentsia in Moscow and his musical education in the company of Myaskovsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Weinberg's approach to the sensitive topic of the experience of the Holocaust "with astonishing intelligence and discretion" and his style, "the delicacy and patience with which he establishes the timeless misery of prison life, and allows the story's weight of emotion to speak for itself, is masterly".
"The Passenger's journey from Auschwitz to the opera" concludes with a positive appraisal of the opera's return to the world stage:
The Passenger has achieved international recognition more than 40 years after its creation. It's a time capsule, but its fiction is rooted in an authentic experience of reality – a truth so powerful it can show our lives in a different perspective. That is what art is for.
"A chorus straight from Auschwitz" in The Independent questions how the Auschwitz experience can be staged as a fictional work - a question posed my many critics and audiences since the premiere was announced.
The question is swiftly answered:
If any opera can succeed, it is The Passenger by Mieczyslaw Weinberg, which promises to be different to any attempt we've seen before. It has the ring of exceptional authenticity, for its creators were working from their own personal experiences.
Given the abundance of admiration and praise that Weinberg has posthumously won thanks to Pountney and Armstrong's tempered performance of The Passenger, reviewers have expressed surprise that he isn't as well-known as his talent would merit. The latest staging at the Coloseum may finally bring Weinberg, and Posmysz too, the recognition and ovations they deserve. Posmysz had the opportunity of attending the premiere show and was honoured with a round of abundant applause from the audience.
The production has been supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music grant.
Performance dates: 19, 24, 29 September (19:30)
07, 13, 15, 22, 25 October, 2011 (19:30)
Running time: 2hrs 55mins
Book tickets at www.eno.org
Venue: ENO London Coliseum, St Martin’s Lane London
See full article in The Guardian: The Passenger's journey from Auschwitz to the opera
See full article in The Independent: A chorus straight from Auschwitz
Source: ENO, Polish Cultural Institute in London