its & life

opera

A powerful and

important opera about

the Holocaust, only

recently rediscovered,

comes to Detroit.

The Passenger

Suzanne Chessler I Contributing Writer

D

Composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg

details

The Passenger will be presented Nov. 14-22 at
the Detroit Opera House. Performance times
are 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and Wednesday and
2:30 p.m. Sunday. $29-$149. A free opera talk
begins one hour before each performance.
(313) 237-7464; michiganopera.org . The open-
ing night performance will be broadcast live
on WRCJ (90.9 FM) with commentary begin-
ning at 7 p.m.

40 November 5 2015

etroit audiences and human-
rights advocates will have the
opportunity to experience a
stirring arts event — one unknown to
the late composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg
(1919-1996). They will get to attend an
opera that presents impassioned music
he wrote but never got to experience in
performance.
The Passenger, an adaptation of Zofia
Posmysz's 1962 Holocaust novel of the
same name, was developed in the late
1960s — but never presented until
2010.
Within the context of the story, the
piece communicates the composer's
emotional reaction to the horrific times
he experienced as he fled Poland for
Russia in 1939 to escape the movement
of the Nazis.
Weinberg, who studied music in
Poland and Russia, was mentored by
Dmitri Shostakovich but encountered
suppression of his work by an anti-
Semitic Soviet government. The son of
Jewish theater performers, Weinberg is
fmally coming to international attention

as music devotees, such as record com-
forgetting, he says, is in his system.
panies, find his compositions.
He will be among the many appearing
The Passenger takes place on a
in related programming as rehearsal
1960s cruise ship as a former guard
schedules allow.
at Auschwitz, now traveling with her
"The libretto [sung in seven languag-
husband, sees another woman pas-
es with projected English translations]
senger who reminds her of a prisoner.
is powerful subject matter; Mercurio
The guard's memories of the camp and
says of the words written by Alexander
her horrific work, hidden from others
Medvedev (1927-2010), a Russian-born
since those times, are awakened and
writer and lecturer who partnered with
recreated.
Weinberg on other operas.
The Michigan Opera
"No one has successfully
Theatre (MOT) stages
written an opera that [connects]
The Passenger Nov. 14-22,
on ultra-realistic terms the way
with four performances at
that this does. Weinberg gives
the Detroit Opera House.
a biting edge to the music, and
Working with some 60
it seconds the action the way a
diverse community partners,
great film score would second
MOT is supporting associ-
what is seen on the screen"
ated programs that explore
Mercurio compares the
Conductor
the topic of genocide (see
power of the opera to the power
Steven
Mercurio
"Explore More").
of Schindler's List.
Conductor Steven
"When the action is in
Mercurio, familiar to MOT audiences
Auschwitz, and it's creepy and eerie,
over many years, feels the deep impact
the music sounds creepy and eerie
of this opera because of Jewish heritage
the conductor says. "When Weinberg
through his mother. The theme of never is trying to create some melancholy,