Opera

Die Passagierin

The Passenger

Mieczyslaw Weinberg

01 Mar, 24 - 24 Mar, 24

Musical conductor: Mirga Gražinytè-Tyla | Stage direction: David Pountney | Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real

An opera that combines two simultaneous actions in two different periods of time and context and is an emotional earthquake. A spectacular setting that will show the spatial duality of a concentration camp and a holiday cruise, two antagonistic situations experienced by both protagonists of this moving opera about forgiveness.

Above, the deck of a transatlantic en route to Brazil. Below, the horrifying memory of a concentration camp. Between both these settings are two women, trying to escape their past in search of a better future. Based on the autobiographical work by Zofia Posmysz – Polish journalist and novelist, a survivor of Auschwitz and Ravensbrück–, Die Passagierin represents an emotional cataclysm whose epicentre is the relationship between two women who were in Auschwitz in two very different positions: one was a prison guard and the other, a Jewish prisoner.

The story spread across Poland as a radio drama (The Passenger from Cabin 45, 1957), a novel (The Passenger, 1962) and a homonymous film (1963) before Shostakovich recognised its suitability for an opera. He recommended it to the Polish-born Soviet composer Mieczylaw Weinberg, who bore the dubious honour of having suffered the fury of anti-Semitism in both its Nazi and Stalinist variants. Completed in 1968 and silenced for decades by the Russian authorities, this shocking opera comes to the Teatro Real backed by an irrepressible international fame.

Melodramma in two acts

Music by Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996)

Libretto by Alexander Medvedev, based on the novel of the same name (1962) by Zofia Posmysz

Premiere in a semi-staged version at the Moscow International Auditorium on 25 December 2006 and in a staged version at the Bregenz Festival on 21 July 2010.

Premiere at the Teatro Real

New production of the Teatro Real, in co-production with Bregenz Festival, Teatr Wielki in Warsaw and English National Opera.

Artistic team

Musical conductor: Mirga Gražinytè-Tyla

Stage director: David Pountney

Set design: Johan Engels

Costumes: Marie-Jeanne Lecca

Lighting: Fabrice Kebour

Chorus master: José Luis Basso

Cast

Marta: Amanda Majeski

Tadeusz: Gyula Orendt

Katja: Anna Gorbachyova

Krzystina: Lidia Vinyes-Curtis

Vlasta: Marta Fontanals-Simmons

Hannah: Nadezhda Karyazina

Ivette: Olivia Doray

Helen Field

Alte: Helen Field

Liuba Sokolova

Bronka: Liuba Sokolova

Lisa: Daveda Karanas

Walter: Nikolai Schukoff

Oberaufseherein and Kapo: Géraldine Dulex

Men of the S.S.: Hrólfur Sædmundsson, Marcell Bakonyi y Albert Casals

Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real

In commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the death of Gerard Mortier (1943-2014)

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Synopsis of Die Passagierin

Ópera en dos actos que se desarrolla en un trasatlántico rumbo a Brasil en 1959. Lisa, la mujer de un diplomático alemán, ve entre los pasajeros a una mujer que le recuerda a Marta, una prisionera de Auschwitz a la que había mandado ejecutar en sus años como guardia en el campo de concentración. Esa aparición despierta una serie de escenas a modo de recuerdos, de un pasado que Marta quería olvidar. Aparecen de nuevo para ella el miedo, los temblores y la tragedia vivida mientras que en Lisa surge una sensación de culpa y responsabilidad individual. Pasado y presente se persiguen mutuamente en una ópera de recuerdos y obsesiones que ahonda en uno de los episodios más vergonzosos de la historia de la humanidad.