Photo from the dress rehearsal of "The Passenger" at the National Opera. Photo: Krzysztof Bieliński
Mieczysław Weinberg's opera, banned by Soviet authorities for much of the previous decade, returns to the stage in this fall in the composer's home city. The Passenger, directed by David Poutney, opens the theatre season at the National Opera this month
"When I read the sign 'Arbeit macht frei' I thought it wouldn't be so bad because I wasn't afraid of work and that surely they would release me soon enough. Sometimes I'd helped my grandparents with the haymaking", remembers Zofia Posmysz in her 1962 novel Pasażerka / The Passenger, upon which the opera was founded.
The performance on October 8 marks the Polish premiere of the opera, which enjoyed a well-received world premiere at Bregenzer Festspiele this summer. The performance is accompanied by an exhibition dedicated to the history of this turbulent tale, also hosted by the National Opera, which runs through November 18, 2010.
"This opera is unappreciated", wrote Michał Bristiger in his in-depth and insightful study on Mieczysław Weinberg and The Passenger. "Zofia Posmysz's novel, Andrzej Munk's film, and Mieczysław Weinberg's opera are at the crossroads of contemporary culture. This is where important matters will be resolved. With question, I now return to the beginning: why did the passenger keep quiet when it was so long after the war? The opera under discussion is stunning. For opera audiences who will go to see "The Passenger", I have a phrase from Robert Musil: 'A good life depends on whether someone can keep up with art'."
Mieczysław Weinberg's opera is the only one in the world dedicated to the Holocaust, written by composer of the "war" generation. The opera has previously been shown only in concert form in Moscow in 2006. The action takes place on a transatlantic vessel sailing from Europe to South America at the end of the 1950s, and partly in a concentration camp between 1943-1944. One of the passengers on the ship is Liza, the wife of a German diplomat who's sailing to his new post in Brazil. It turns out that Liza was once an SS guard at Auschwitz. To her shock, one of the passengers resembles Marta, a Polish prisoner at the concentration camp whom she had once attempted to befriend. Posmysz based a great deal of the novel on her own experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the war.
The Passenger is directed by David Pountney, the artistic director of the festival in Bregenz. The show features three Polish singers: Artur Ruciński, Agnieszka Rehlis and Elżbieta Wróblewska. The soloists will be accompanied by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Prague Philharmonic Choir.
The Passenger
Composed by Mieczysław Weinberg, according to the libretto by Aleksandr Medvedev and the novel by Zofia Posmysz. Director: David Pountney, musical director: Gabriel Chmura, set design and props: Johan Engels, costume designer: Marie-Jeanne Lecca, choir coach: Bogdan Gola, reżyser świateł: Fabrice Kebour. Marta - Elena Kelessidi, Tadeusz - Artur Ruciński, Katia - Svetlana Doneva, Krystyna - Małgorzata Pańko, Vlasta - Elżbieta Wróblewska, Hannah - Anna Borucka, Yvette - Małgorzata Olejniczak, Stara - Joanna Cortes, Bronka - Małgorzata Godlewska, Lisa - Agnieszka Rehlis, Soliści, Chór i Orkiestra Opery Narodowej.
Produced in cooperation with the Bregenzer Festspiele (Austria), English National Opera (London) i Teatro Real (Madrid). Repeat performances on October 10 & 12. In Polish and German with Polish subtitles.
Grand Theatre - National Opera
Teatr Wielki - Opera Narodowa
Pl. Teatralny 1
Warsaw
tel. (+48 22) 826 04 23
Source: www.teatrwielki.pl