Madrid, March 24, 2024.
Mieczysław Weinberg was a Polish composer who developed his career in the Soviet Union, and until not long ago, he was little known, compared to his great colleague and friend Dimitri Shostakovich. Weinberg was Jewish, and had to flee his native Poland when the Nazis invaded his country, fleeing to the Soviet Union. But when the Nazis entered Minsk, he had to go into exile in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where he married, and also met Shostakovich. A large part of his family perished in the Holocaust. However, his disgraced fate did not end there. In 1953, he was arrested for being a "Jewish bourgeois", being imprisoned in the terrible Lubianka prison, and his uncle was a victim of the doctors' plot, one of the persecutions against the Jews which took place during Stalin's dictatorship in the following years after World War II. Shortly after the dictator's death, Shostakovich's intervention saved him. The friendship of both composers influenced the interest that the latter showed in Jewish themes in his work, in addition to the fact that he admired Weinberg's first symphony. The 1960s were his "stellar years",his activity increased, and finally he was honored as People's Artist in 1971. During thoseyears, he composed his opera "The Passenger", about the encounter between a former Nazi female guard and a female Auschwitz prisoner while travelling in a cruise, a story based on the novel "Passenger" by Zofia Posmysz, a journalist who was a prisoner in Auschwitz. It was to be premiered at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in 1968, but that couldn't happen until 2006, when the composer had already been dead for ten years. However, the international presentation of this work, in its first stage premiere, was at the Bregenz Festival in 2010, under the direction of Teodor Currentzis and with the staging of David Pountney, a production that was filmed on DVD, being seen in many theaters, and now arrives to the Teatro Real, in its Spanish premiere. It was scheduled for April 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic postponed this premiere, until this month.
There is no doubt we are in front of a masterpiece, one of the most interesting operas of the second half of the 20th century. On the one hand, the topic it deals with still haunts Western societies, on the other hand, the harsh and descriptive music cannot be enjoyed separately from what happens on stage, which in the second part is more lyrical, and musically more beautiful. This opera has the peculiarity of being sung in several languages. Even, in a rare practice these days, the choir sings its part in Spanish. Given that the Auschwitz prisoners came from all over the Europe, it makes sense that they sing their parts in several languages, so apart from German, we hear Yiddish, Russian, Polish, French and English sung. In the 1960s, Germans had not yet faced their Nazi past properly. Furthermore, no one talked about it, and if they took their first steps in doing so precisely in this decade, it was due to such events as the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the Auschwitz trials held in Frankfurt, the deportation from the United States of the SS-Aufseherin Hermine Braunsteiner or the publication of the memoirs of the former BDM Melita Maschmann, who denounced her Jewish best friend to the Gestapo. Many people with a bloody, murderous career during the Nazi years lived perfectly integrated into German society, being the least interested in removing the past, and that is something that the USSR used to criticize West Germany, and the main theme of this opera.
So, the character of Lisa, the SS guard, is perhaps more interesting than that of Marta, the prisoner. Lise represents a society that the Nazis had stripped of any humanity, educated in the most absolute heinous hatred. After the defeat of the regime, for wipping the slate clean, they excused themselves by stating that they didn't know, or that they were just following orders, or some people even maintained that they were defending themselves from the many "enemies" that Germany had. They were not born monsters, but they ended up doing monstrous things, as the regime encouraged it. Marta, on the other hand, means resistance, resilience, and enough strength to look the cruel Lisa in the face. The libretto has been pointed out, as the plot is lost in the characters, from the three evil SS officers who spread hate around, to the poor prisoners, coming from all over Europe, who pray, make plans for the future, when the public knows that they will not survive, and that ultimately, they are sent to the gas chamber.
Pountney's editing is conventional, classic for this work and the subject it deals with, making the action understandable. There is a single stage platform that on the upper part shows the deck of a ship, while on the lower level the facilities of the Auschwitz death camp are seen, in the lower part of the stage, surrounded by circle-shaped railways. Some freight cars, in which the prisoners were transported there, act as a change of scene. On one of them, the male choir stands, dressed in black. Above another is Lisa's room on the cruise ship. Inside that same car the barracks where the prisoners sleep are seen, and in successive changes of scene,also the workshops and crematorium ovens.
The Lithuanian maestro Mirga Gražinytè-Tyla, herself specialized in Weinberg's music, conducts the Teatro Real Orchestra in a high-level performance. The prominent presence of percussion in this work is striking, with three xylophones and a celesta, in addition to the drums that open the score. The woodwind also has an important presence. Still, since the music is more beautiful in the second part, the orchestra shines more in it than in the first. The interludes are conducted quite spectacularly. The Teatro Real Choir sings in Spanish, as mentioned before, establishing itself as the voice of conscience that has a universal language. The male choir sounds in piano most of the time, sounding ominous, as if it were in Lisa's mind, as well as in the audience ones. It is in the final scene that the male and female choirs sing with their usual vigor, in a moment of great strength.
Soprano Amanda Majeski sang Marta, the prisoner. The voice is beautiful, although the high voice is sometimes strident, but she is dedicated to the interpretation and her singing is moving in her final monologue.
Daveda Karanas played Lisa, the nazi who struggles to hide her bloody past and tries to enjoy life. This mezzo-soprano is equally devoted to interpretation and staging, but even though she has a beautiful voice, I felt that she lacked some presence.
Tenor Nikolai Schukoff as the German ambassador to Brazil and Lisa's husband, was one of the surprises of the night, with a voice still in good shape that could be heard throughout the hall.
Gyula Orendt was Tadeusz, Marta's former fiancé. This Hungarian baritone was also at a good vocal and acting level. In the scene when Tadeusz plays the violin before being murdered, he was reemplacen the by violinist Stephen Waarts.
Of the cast members singing the prisoners, all were devoted, and well performed, but we could highlight the soprano Anna Gorbachyova-Ogilvie, in the role of the prisoner Katja, who starred in one of the most emotional moments, singing a song a cappella. Olivia Doray, as the poor Yvette, who makes plans to return to Dijon but ends up selected for the gas chamber, also stood out, with a sweet coloratura soprano voice. The tenor and the two baritones who played the wicked SS officers also fulfilled their roles very well.
Many of those who have attended the Teatro Real have talked about this opera on social networks. From its excellent mix of music and drama, and they have come away overwhelmed by its story. The press has also echoed its virtues. But regardless of all this, this work is more necessary than ever. In these times where there are wars, human suffering, and what is worse, a resurgence of extremist populism and in particular anti-semitism, something that all social networks are infested with, the Holocaust as topic is neither hackneyed nor boring at all, as it happened in the core of the "civilised" Western world.
The ovations given to the cast and the comments on the Teatro Real's social networks suggest that we are possibly facing the great success of this season.
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