The Nutcracker

M. Weinberg

Other

October 30, 2014 19:00–21:40

October 30, 2014

19:00–21:40

Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre

Opera in two acts, 8 scenes with epilogue
Concert performance of the opera

Libretto by A. Medvedev based on of the same name Zofia Posmysh’s story

The 1960s, on a transatlantic liner: a former SS guard at Auschwitz, Liese, encounters Marta, a former inmate. Their meeting brings up deeply painful memories for both women. The plot of the novel by Polish author Zofia Posmysz, based on her memoirs as a former concentration camp prisoner, inspired Mieczysław Weinberg, who lost his family during the course of the Second World War.

The composer dedicated his opera to all the victims of fascism, referring «to the memory, and therefore the conscience of each of us». Everything that is directed against an individual, Weinberg opposes. First of all, war as a fundamental force of evil, but also a totalitarian regime and any other obsession to reconstruct the world. All of his works in different genres are permeated with the spirit of a person, including his music for the cinema – he is the composer of the soundtrack for the film The Cranes are Flying by Mikhail Kalatozov.

The Passenger was completed in 1977 and was championed by Shostakovich but banned in the Soviet Union for a long time for obvious reasons. The staged production of The Passenger was only premiered in 2010 at the Bregenz Festival in Austria, directed by David Pountney and conducted by Teodor Currentzis.

Age category: 6+