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The Passenger (opera)
The Passenger (Russian: Пассажирка, romanized: Passazhirka) is a 1968 opera by Mieczysław Weinberg to a Russian libretto by Alexander Medvedev. Medvedev's libretto is based on the 1959 Polish radio play Pasażerka z kabiny 45 (Passenger from Cabin Number 45) by concentration-camp survivor Zofia Posmysz. The opera, scheduled for the Bolshoi Theatre in 1968, was not premiered until 2006, when musicians of the Stanislavsky Theatre presented a semi-staging conducted by Wolf Gorelik in the Svetlanov Hall of the Moscow International House of Music on 25 December. Medvedev's libretto was reworked in 2010 for the first staged performance of the opera at the Bregenzer Festspiele into German, English, Polish, Yiddish, French, Russian and Czech. It has then been performed internationally.
Mieczysław Weinberg composed The Passenger in 1968 to a Russian libretto by Alexander Medvedev.(Russian: Пассажирка, romanized: Passazhirka) Medvedev's libretto is based on the 1959 Polish radio play Pasażerka z kabiny 45 (Passenger from Cabin Number 45) by concentration-camp survivor Zofia Posmysz. The play was rewritten in 1962 by its author as a novel, Pasażerka. Posmysz also worked with Andrzej Munk on the screenplay for his related, posthumously finished 1963 film Pasażerka. Medvedev's libretto was reworked in 2010 for the first staged performance of the opera at the Bregenzer Festspiele into German, English, Polish, Yiddish, French, Russian and Czech.
Originally scheduled to be performed at the Bolshoi in 1968, the opera was not premiered until 25 December 2006,[unreliable source?] when it received a semi-staging by musicians of the Stanislavsky Theater in Moscow. It was premiered by musicians of the Stanislavsky Theatre in the Svetlanov Hall of the Moscow International House of Music on 25 December 2006, in a semi-staging conducted by Wolf Gorelik. The cast included Anastasia Bakastova as Katya, Natalia Muradimova as Marta, Natalia Vladimirskaya as Liza, Alexey Dolgov as Valter and Dmitry Kondratkov as Tadeush.
The first full staging took place in 2010 at the Bregenzer Festspiele, directed by David Pountney, with a set design by Johan Engels. Teodor Currentzis conducted the Wiener Symphoniker and the Prague Philharmonic Choir. The July 31 performance was filmed and released on DVD and Blu-ray. The same production was presented in Warsaw by Polish National Opera in 2010 and received its UK première on 19 September 2011 at the English National Opera (broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 on 15 October). In 2013, it was performed in Germany for the first time at Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe. The Passenger received its American premiere on 18 January 2014, at Houston Grand Opera. The opera has also been produced at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and at the Oper Frankfurt (Germany), both in early 2015. It was produced by Florida Grand Opera in 2016, by The Israeli Opera in 2019, in 2020 by Madrid's Teatro Real, and then again in 2024 at the Bavarian State Opera.
Orchestra:
The opera is set on two levels: the upper level depicts the deck of an ocean liner after the Second World War where a German couple, Lisa and Walter (a West German diplomat on his way with his new wife to a new diplomatic posting), are sailing to Brazil. The wife, Lisa, thinks she recognises a Polish woman on board, Marta, as a former inmate of Auschwitz concentration camp where she, unknown to her husband, was a camp guard. The second lower level develops below the liner deck, depicting the concentration camp. The opera is an interplay between the two levels.
Scene 1 : Walter and his wife Lisa are on their way to a new life in Brazil where Walter will take up a diplomatic post. During the journey, Lisa is struck by the appearance of a passenger she sees indistinctly. The passenger reminds her of an inmate in Auschwitz who was under her orders and who she knows for certain is dead. In shock, she reveals her hitherto undisclosed wartime past to her husband.
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The Passenger (opera)
The Passenger (Russian: Пассажирка, romanized: Passazhirka) is a 1968 opera by Mieczysław Weinberg to a Russian libretto by Alexander Medvedev. Medvedev's libretto is based on the 1959 Polish radio play Pasażerka z kabiny 45 (Passenger from Cabin Number 45) by concentration-camp survivor Zofia Posmysz. The opera, scheduled for the Bolshoi Theatre in 1968, was not premiered until 2006, when musicians of the Stanislavsky Theatre presented a semi-staging conducted by Wolf Gorelik in the Svetlanov Hall of the Moscow International House of Music on 25 December. Medvedev's libretto was reworked in 2010 for the first staged performance of the opera at the Bregenzer Festspiele into German, English, Polish, Yiddish, French, Russian and Czech. It has then been performed internationally.
Mieczysław Weinberg composed The Passenger in 1968 to a Russian libretto by Alexander Medvedev.(Russian: Пассажирка, romanized: Passazhirka) Medvedev's libretto is based on the 1959 Polish radio play Pasażerka z kabiny 45 (Passenger from Cabin Number 45) by concentration-camp survivor Zofia Posmysz. The play was rewritten in 1962 by its author as a novel, Pasażerka. Posmysz also worked with Andrzej Munk on the screenplay for his related, posthumously finished 1963 film Pasażerka. Medvedev's libretto was reworked in 2010 for the first staged performance of the opera at the Bregenzer Festspiele into German, English, Polish, Yiddish, French, Russian and Czech.
Originally scheduled to be performed at the Bolshoi in 1968, the opera was not premiered until 25 December 2006,[unreliable source?] when it received a semi-staging by musicians of the Stanislavsky Theater in Moscow. It was premiered by musicians of the Stanislavsky Theatre in the Svetlanov Hall of the Moscow International House of Music on 25 December 2006, in a semi-staging conducted by Wolf Gorelik. The cast included Anastasia Bakastova as Katya, Natalia Muradimova as Marta, Natalia Vladimirskaya as Liza, Alexey Dolgov as Valter and Dmitry Kondratkov as Tadeush.
The first full staging took place in 2010 at the Bregenzer Festspiele, directed by David Pountney, with a set design by Johan Engels. Teodor Currentzis conducted the Wiener Symphoniker and the Prague Philharmonic Choir. The July 31 performance was filmed and released on DVD and Blu-ray. The same production was presented in Warsaw by Polish National Opera in 2010 and received its UK première on 19 September 2011 at the English National Opera (broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 on 15 October). In 2013, it was performed in Germany for the first time at Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe. The Passenger received its American premiere on 18 January 2014, at Houston Grand Opera. The opera has also been produced at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and at the Oper Frankfurt (Germany), both in early 2015. It was produced by Florida Grand Opera in 2016, by The Israeli Opera in 2019, in 2020 by Madrid's Teatro Real, and then again in 2024 at the Bavarian State Opera.
Orchestra:
The opera is set on two levels: the upper level depicts the deck of an ocean liner after the Second World War where a German couple, Lisa and Walter (a West German diplomat on his way with his new wife to a new diplomatic posting), are sailing to Brazil. The wife, Lisa, thinks she recognises a Polish woman on board, Marta, as a former inmate of Auschwitz concentration camp where she, unknown to her husband, was a camp guard. The second lower level develops below the liner deck, depicting the concentration camp. The opera is an interplay between the two levels.
Scene 1 : Walter and his wife Lisa are on their way to a new life in Brazil where Walter will take up a diplomatic post. During the journey, Lisa is struck by the appearance of a passenger she sees indistinctly. The passenger reminds her of an inmate in Auschwitz who was under her orders and who she knows for certain is dead. In shock, she reveals her hitherto undisclosed wartime past to her husband.