Le Bon Travel & Culture
  • Home
  • Theater
    • The Doppelganger
    • Our Great Tchaikovsky
    • An Enemy of the People
    • Anthem Comes Alive on Stage
    • Chicago Shakespeare's New Season
    • Mary Stuart
    • The Wolves
    • Joffrey Ballet's New Season
    • A Midsummer Night's Dream
    • Blind Date
    • Red Velvet
    • Puff: Believe It or Not
    • The Nutcracker 2017
    • A Wonderful Life
    • The Crucible
    • The Rembrandt
    • A View from the Bridge
    • Bullets Over Broadway
    • United Flight 232
    • Madagascar
    • The Tin Woman
    • Romeo & Juliet-In the Park >
      • Ah, Wilderness!
    • Update Safe Space Theater
    • The Critical Affair
    • The Destruction of Chicago Theater
    • London Assurance
    • Steppenwolf Shuts Down
    • Ragtime
    • Chicago Shakespeare Yard
    • Pamplona
    • Relativity
    • Objects in the Mirror
    • Shakespeare in Love
    • Cavalia
    • Mary Poppins
    • Beyond Caring
    • Destiny of Desire
    • Spamilton
    • The Scene
    • Uncle Vanya
    • Straight White Men
    • The Book of Joseph
    • The Bodyguard
    • Gloria
    • The Christians
    • Phantom of the Opera
    • Curious Incident of Dog
    • Pygmalion
    • Finding Neverland
    • King Charles III
    • Hamilton
    • The Burials
    • Civil Strife
    • Wonderful Town
    • Black Slot
    • Bakersfield Mist
    • Kinky Boots
    • Bloodshot
    • C.S. Lewis
    • War Paint
    • The Book of Mormon
    • Thaddeus and Slocum
    • SpongeBob
    • Chicago Theatrical Tour
    • Tony Awards 2016
    • Soups, Stews
    • Jack Zimmerman's Stories
    • Tug of War
    • Sign in Sidney Brustein's
    • Chicago
    • The Producers
    • Mary Page Marlowe
    • Carlyle
    • Irving Berlin
    • Arcadia
    • Matilda
    • Blood Wedding
    • Matchmaker
    • 42nd Street
    • Othello
    • Cabaret
    • Man Murdered Sherlock
    • Murdering Sherlock Holmes
    • Gotta Dance
    • Domesticated
    • The Heir Apparent
    • Beautiful
    • 1984
    • Ride the Cyclone
    • Treasure Island
    • Unspeakable
    • Disgraced
    • Funnyman
    • The Tempest
    • Bad Jews
    • Grand Concourse
    • Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
    • Moby Dick
    • On Your Feet
    • Stop. Reset.
    • Once
    • The Little Foxes
    • Jersey Boys-Day of Show $25
    • Sense and Sensibility
    • The Audience
    • Ring of Fire
    • The Herd
    • Louis and Keely 'Live'
    • The Upstairs Concierge
    • Two Trains Running
    • First Wives Club
    • Dear John Hughes
    • Dunsinane
    • Marie Antoinette
    • Rapture, Blister, Burn
    • Lookingglass Alice
    • Airline Highway
    • Cinderella
    • Newsies
    • Pericles
    • Annie
    • Animal Farm
    • Amazing Grace Soars
    • Renewal in Amazing Grace
    • Smokefall Encore
    • The Night Alive
    • The World of Extreme Happiness
    • King Lear
    • Death Tax
    • Puppets Coming to Chicago
    • Lighting Up Chicago Stages-Fall Theater 2014
    • London Theatre Bans Jewish Film Festival
    • The Qualms
    • Brigadoon-theater review
    • The Last Ship
    • In the Garden: A Darwinian Love Story
    • Ask Aunt Susan
    • Tony Awards-2014
    • Free Shakespeare in the Parks
    • The White Snake
    • Henry V
    • Motown The Musical
    • The Wizard of Oz
    • The Sound of Music
    • Shakespeare's 450th Birthday
    • Peter and the Starcatcher
    • Road Show
    • Venus in Fur
    • Ain't Misbehavin'
    • The Phantom of the Opera
    • Smokefall
    • Lord of the Flies
    • Cyrano de Bergerac
    • Evita
    • Stella & Lou
  • Movies
    • Chappaquiddick
    • The Death of Stalin
    • 7 Days in Entebbe
    • The 15:17 to Paris
    • Phantom Thread
    • Dunkirk
    • Wonder Woman
    • The Zookeeper's Wife
    • Bitter Harvest
    • Gold
    • The Founder
    • Hacksaw Ridge
    • Snowden
    • Chicago's 52 Film Festival
    • Sully
    • Florence Foster Jenkins
    • America: Imagine the World without Her
    • 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
    • Where to Invade Next opens
    • Trumbo
    • Spectre
    • Truth
    • Where to Invade Next
    • Bridge of Spies
    • The Martian
    • Self/Less
    • Jurassic World
    • Spy
    • International Films-Free
    • Woman in Gold
    • Kingsman: The Secret Service
    • Fifty Shades of Sadism
    • Blackhat
    • American Sniper
    • Unbroken
    • The Interview
    • Annie-movie review
    • The Imitation Game
    • The Ten Best Ever Political Films
    • Interstellar
    • Before I Go To Sleep
    • Birdman
    • St. Vincent
    • Fury
    • The Judge
    • Stars on the Red Carpet-Chicago International Film Festival
    • Gone Girl
    • The Equalizer
    • The Maze Runner
    • A Walk Among the Tombstones
    • Atlas Shrugged: Who Is John Galt?
    • The Identical
    • The November Man
    • The Best Movie Year-75th Anniversary
    • Chicago International Film Festival
    • The Giver-movie review
    • The Hundred-Foot Journey
    • And So It Goes
    • Magic in the Moonlight
    • A Most Wanted Man
    • Persecuted
    • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
    • Chef
    • The Railway Man
    • Agatha Christie Films in DVD
    • The Grand Budapest Hotel
    • Atlas Shrugged: Who is John Galt?
    • August: Osage County
    • The Wolf of Wall Street
    • Saving Mr. Banks
    • The Book Thief
    • The Butler
    • Elysium
    • The Heat
    • The Scarlet Pimpernel
  • Books
    • Architect of the Sydney Opera House
    • Dinner with Churchill
    • A People's Tragedy
    • The American Miracle
    • The Black Widow
    • Finding Home
    • I Wanna Be A Producer
    • Foreign Agent
    • Into the Black
    • Why the Jews?
    • Robert Doisneau
    • The Perks of Victimhood
    • The Wright Brothers
    • National Geographic's Abroad at Home
    • Edge of Eternity
    • The True Believer
    • A World Lit Only By Fire
    • London Book of Lists
    • World's Best Cities
    • Baudelaire's Revenge
    • The Dog Lover's Guide To Travel
    • Operation Damocles
    • Where the Locals Go
    • Capitalism and the Jews
    • The Resistance Man
    • The Wealth Creators
    • The Emperor's New Clothes
    • Capturing the Light
    • Animal Farm
    • Fire and Light: How the Enlightenment Transformed Our World
    • Plain Jane
    • Before There Was Hollywood, There Was Chicago
    • Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast
    • Killing Lincoln
    • Picasso: Creator and Destroyer
    • John Steinbeck Book Festival
  • Art
    • Winslow Homer
    • Sorolla and Fashion
    • Wild Encounters
    • Frederic Remington at the Met
    • Rodin: The Human Experience
    • Australia's Impressionists
    • William Merritt Chase
    • Sorolla and the Paris Years
    • Painting the Modern Garden
    • Edvard Munch
    • Dutch Golden Age
    • Gustave Caillebotte
    • Anthony Quinn's Art at National Hellenic Museum
    • Klimt's The Woman in Gold on Exhibit
    • Magritte Exhibit-The Revolt Against Reason
    • Legendary Photographer Edward Steichen at Art Institute of Chicago
    • Norman Rockwell's American Spirit
    • Chicago International Art Show
    • Renaissance to Goya
    • John Singer Sargent Watercolors
    • Art Recreates Life in Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity
    • International Antiques Fair
    • Picasso and Chicago
    • Museo Picasso: Early Works
  • Travel
    • San Antonio Rodeo
    • Paris Skullduggery
    • Surreal Spain: On the Trail of Slavador Dali
    • Art Lovers Fort Worth
    • Great Train Journeys
    • Romancing the Rails
    • Arizona-Chgo Travel & Adventure Show
    • Lascaux Cave Revisited
    • London for the Uninitiated
    • Roman Spain-Tarragona
    • Cinematic Paris
    • Race to Mackinac
    • Ancient Egypt
    • Dressing Downtown
    • Chicago Travel & Adventure Show
    • Lumiere London
    • Food, Wine, and 450 Years of History
    • In the Footsteps of the French Revolution
    • A Walk Through Jewish History-Prague
    • On the Trail of the Magna Carta
    • Chicago Travel & Adventure Show
    • Israeli Opera Festival at Masada
    • How To Be The World's Smartest Traveler
    • Santa Fe: Opera Under the Stars
    • Austin City Limits and More
    • Guide to British Royal Residences
    • Jane Austen's England-200 Years of Pride and Prejudice
    • Lincoln's Springfield
    • Happy Birthday Cole Porter
    • Napa Valley Arts Festival
    • Picasso's Spanish Trail
    • Opening the Vaults: Wonders of the 1893 World's Fair
    • Nantucket Wine and Books
  • Opera
    • Lyric opera Dance Auditions
    • Faust
    • Cosi fan tutte
    • I Puritani
    • Lyric Opera 2018/19 auditions
    • Turandot
    • The Pearl Fishers
    • Die Walkure
    • Audition
    • Rigoletto
    • Orphée et Eurydice
    • Lyric Opera's 2017/18 Season
    • My Fair Lady
    • Owens + Brownlee
    • Charlie Parker's Yardbird
    • Eugene Onegin
    • Carmen
    • Norma
    • The Magic Flute
    • Don Quichotte
    • Anti-Semitic Opera Coming to the Met
    • Les Troyens
    • Lucia di Lammermoor
    • Das Rheingold
    • The King and I
    • Roméo et Juliette >
      • Tenors and Terrorism at the Metropolitan Opera
    • Der Rosenkavalier
    • Nabucco
    • Bel Canto
    • The Tails of Huddleston and Xena
    • The Merry Widow
    • Wozzeck
    • Cinderella
    • The Marriage of Figaro
    • Lyric Opera Launches 61st Season
    • Stars of Lyric Opera 2015
    • Carousel
    • The Passenger
    • Tannhäuser
    • Tosca
    • Anna Bolena
    • Memory and Reckoning for Lyric Premiere
    • Porgy and Bess
    • Il Trovatore
    • Porgy and Bess Returns
    • Capriccio Soars at the Lyric
    • Don Giovanni Seduces All
    • Lyric Opera Chorus Fall Concerts
    • World Premieres by Lyric Unlimited
    • New Concert Shell for Lyric
    • Lyric Opera Dance Auditions
    • Fort Worth 2014 Opera Festival
    • La clemenza di Tito
    • Rusalka
    • The Barber of Seville
    • Lyric Opera of Chicago's Diamond Anniversary
    • Behind the Curtain of the Lyric Opera of Chicago
    • Lyric Opera of Chicago Announces Chorus Auditions
    • Die Fledermaus
    • La Traviata
    • Parsifal
    • Madama Butterfly
    • Otello
    • Oklahoma
  • Music
    • Celebrating 100 Years of Leonard Bernstein
    • A Musical Summer
    • Beethoven Closing Festival
    • Harris Theater 2016
    • Baritones Unbound
    • Itzhak Perlman
    • Ravinia Summer 2015
    • The 8th Annual Chicago Dancing Festival
    • Music is in the Air-Santa Fe
    • Milwaukee's Summerfest
    • Montreal International Jazz Festival
    • Springtime for Spoleto
    • Ravinia-Summer of Love
    • Chicago's Music Festival-Summer 2014
    • Tanglewood: Summer 2014
    • Annual Chicago Jazz Festival
  • Food/Wine
    • Key West Food & Wine Festival
    • Great Lobster Fest
    • Outrageous Dining
    • Grape Stomping at GrapeFest
    • Santa Fe's Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown
    • South Beach Wine & Food Festival
    • The Kohler Food & Wine Experience
    • Newport Food & Wine Festival
    • Food & Wine Classic in Aspen
  • About us
  • Advertise
  • New Contact Us

The Passenger-opera review
March 2, 2015

Picture
Opera Review
March 1, 2015

The Passenger

by Betty Mohr

It was an epic carnage of historic proportion that should never be forgotten.  And the Lyric Opera of Chicago, with its presentation of The Passenger, has courageously not forgotten.  The opera, which centers on the Holocaust, is the most significant of this year’s Lyric season—and maybe of any of its seasons.

One can’t help but contrast The Passenger with New York Metropolitan Opera’s recent production of The Death of Klinghoffer.  That opera presented the story of the 1985 hijacking of the passenger liner, the Achille Lauro.  It offered a moral equivalence between the 69-year-old wheelchair-bound Jewish American and the PLO terrorist who shot him and threw him overboard. (To read more on Klinghoffer, click here.)

The opera, composed by John Adams, attempts to give credence to the terrorist’s grievance—as though the atrocity could be rationalized. Unlike the anti-Semitic Klinghoffer opera, which glorified terrorism, The Passenger takes a moral stand

Based on Zofia Posmysz’s (a survivor of Auschwitz) novel, The Passenger is composed by Miecyzslaw Weinberg (1919-1996) with a libretto by Alexander Medvedev (1927-2010). Weinberg, a Polish Jew, lost his mother, father, and sister in the Nazi totalitarian drive to slaughter every Jew in Europe. He escaped to Russia at the beginning of World War II and wrote The Passenger in 1968. But he was prevented from having it performed by the Jew-hating Marxist Soviet Regime.

The opera was discovered by director David Pountney, who in 2010 staged The Passenger at the Bregenz Festival in Austria.  The opera was also mounted in Warsaw, Poland, Madrid, Spain, London, England, Tel Aviv, Israel, and Houston, Texas. Now Pountney stages it at the Lyric in an exquisite, subtle, and heartrending new-to-Chicago production.  

Picture
It begins on board a luxurious ocean liner as Walter, a German diplomat (velvety tenor Brandon Jovanovich) and his wife, Liese (rich mezzo-soprano Daveda Karanas’s) are on their way to Brazil for Walter’s new post. It is 1960 and everything is looking up for the couple until Liese spots a woman who reminds her of Marta (sparkling soprano Amanda Majeski), a Nazi- concentration inmate.

Walter is not aware that his wife was previously an SS death-camp warden. When he finds out, he’s horrified, but not because of the evil in which his wife took part, but because it could ruin his career. And Liese, unrepentant, has rationalized her past, persuading herself that she actually helped the incarcerated Jewish woman. But her fear of discovering that the passenger is really the Jewish prisoner reveals Liese’s deep-seated, unacknowledged guilt. She believes that if she can forget the past, then it never happened.

The scenic design of the opera by Johan Engles is extraordinary and powerful.  The two-tier set features a luminous, white ship’s deck on top, and a dark, deadly camp below (Fabrice Kabour’s lighting conveys the mood of the two worlds to emotional perfection).  

While we see the passengers on the ship dressed immaculately in white, the inmates below have had their heads shaved and are imprisoned in grisly striped uniforms (costumes by Marie-Jeanne Lecca). 

The Nazi prisoners sing in the languages of their nationalities so that we hear Polish, Czech, English, Yiddish, French, and German as the opera continues to a heart-piercing moment in which Tadeusz (baritone Joshua Hopkins), Marta’s lover, is ordered to play the Nazi commander’s favorite waltz.  In a heroic act of defiance, Tadeusz plays Bach instead. The jackbooted thugs rip his violin from his hands, trash it, and drag him off to certain death.

Picture
Weinberg’s musical score, under Sir Andrew Davis’s masterful baton (everything Davis touches is golden) and the Lyric Orchestra, has moments that sound like the plaintive cry of soul-searing profound sorrow, and times when the music has a life-affirming melody that conveys a sense of human dignity in the face of brutal depravity and horror.

The Passenger would have been an important work in any year after the Nazi savagery—but now in the midst of the rampant Jew hatred exploding across Europe—a Europe that is beginning to look a lot like the landscape of Hitler’s 1930s, The Passenger is incredibly timely. 

Bravo to Anthony Freud, Lyric’s general director, for selecting this powerful, poignant, and passionate work as the last opera of the Lyric season.

The Passenger
When: Through March 15, 2015
Where: Lyric Opera at the Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Dr., Chicago
Tickets: $39-$249
Information: Call 312.827.5600 or visit www.lyricopera.org

Tweet
Allianz Travel Insurance
illy espresso lover's kit

Copyright 2018 Le Bon Travel & Culture-All Rights Reserved