Albertitalks: The Passenger

Sunday, March 1, 2015

The Passenger

Last night Karen, David and I had a profoundly moving experience at Chicago Lyric Opera. The occasion was a performance of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger, which was having it's local premiere at the opera house.

The opera and the composer were unknown to me until last night, but judging by the amazing work we heard, we'll be hearing a lot about him in the future. He was a Polish Jew who went to Russia, was a friend of Shostakovitch, and a prolific composer. He was out of favor with Stalin, was put in prison, and would have been killed, had not Stalin died at that moment.

The opera was written in 1968, based on a story by Zofia Pomysz. It details a trip on board ship from Germany to Brazil. Walter and Liese are going to Brazil where he will have a position in the German embassy there. Liese sees a woman on the ship she recognizes as someone she supervised at Auschwitz when she was an SS officer during the war. As far as she knows, she sent the woman to her death. They both fear that if this woman recognizes Liese, it will ruin their position in Brazil.

The opera goes back and forth from the ship in 1968 to the concentration camp during the war. A very creative set is divided between a balcony, which is the deck of the ship, and the main stage which is the concentration camp. Everything on the ship is white, the set, the costumes, all gleaming white. The concentration camp is all dark and ominous.

The music is amazing. Jagged but lyrical lines for the singers, wonderful orchestration for the orchestra.

The cast was superb. Brandon Jovanovich sang the role of Walter with a strong, almost Helden tenor voice. Liese was sung by Davida Karanas, with a rich spinto soprano, Marta was performed by the amazing Amanda Majeskie, whose soaring high passages shone, and Tadeusz was sung by Joshua Hopkins. The rest of the very large cast was excellent.