Author Zofia Posmysz Set for Lyric Opera of Chicago's Discussion of THE PASSENGER, 2/15

Lyric Opera of Chicago today announced several updates to "?Memory and Reckoning," a confluence of activities related to the Chicago premiere of Mieczys?aw Weinberg's The Passenger, on stage at Lyric February 24 through March 15. This poignant and gripping 20th-century masterpiece portrays the story of the Holocaust from the perspectives of both victim and perpetrator, and was only recently rediscovered after more than 40 years of suppression. "Memory and Reckoning" is a supplemental series of events designed to expand and amplify the themes of this powerful opera.

A complete calendar of "Memory and Reckoning" events follows the body of this release; events start on January 29 at venues throughout Chicago and in Urbana and include musical performances, a film screening, exploratory discussions, and the world premiere of The Property, a newly commissioned klezmer opera.

Polish author Zofia Posmysz in Chicago
Joining February 15 The Passenger Exploratory Discussion
at Chicago Cultural Center

Zofia Posmysz, the Polish author of the radio play Passenger from Cabin Number 45 and the later novel that inspired Weinberg's opera, will be in Chicago for several Memory and Reckoning events. Posmysz was a devout Catholic who at age 18 was arrested and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau for associating with fellow students who distributed anti-Nazi leaflets. After the war, Posmysz became a journalist and author. She was inspired to write the radio play after she thought she heard the voice of her Auschwitz overseer while on a visit to Paris. Though it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity, the incident caused her to think about the post-war fates of the camp guards and write the original radio play.

Posmysz will participate in the exploratory discussion with The Passenger director David Pountney, Lyric general director Anthony Freud, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor Katherine Syer on Sunday, February 15 at 1pm. Weinberg's Piano Quintet, Op. 18 will also be performed by members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra. This event, originally scheduled to take place at the Civic Opera House, has been moved to the Chicago Cultural Center's Preston Bradley Hall (78 E. Washington St, Chicago). This event is free and open to the public; reservations are required and can be made at lyricopera.org/Memory or 312-827-5600. Posmysz will also attend The Passenger's Chicago premiere on February 24 at the Civic Opera House.

"Dictated by Fate" Gallery Exhibit

"Many of my works are related to the theme of war. This, alas, was not my own choice. It was dictated by my fate, by the tragic fate of my relatives." - Mieczys?aw Weinberg

Lyric is mounting a new gallery exhibit at the Civic Opera House, "Dictated by Fate," which ties together many of the themes from The Passenger and "Memory and Reckoning" events, exploring the lasting effect that war has on individuals and communities.

Photographs from the life of The Passenger composer Mieczys?aw Weinberg will be on display, as will artifacts chronicling the creation of the opera's first fully-staged production. Photographs with author Zofia Posmysz collaborating with director David Pountney, the late set designer Johan Engels, and costume designer Marie-Jeanne Lecca will be included, as will Engels's set models and Lecca's costume sketches.

Additionally, the exhibit will include many objects loaned by the Polish Museum of America and the Jewish Museum Milwaukee: wood-block prints that depict images from the Holocaust, sheet music of songs sung by residents of the Lodz Ghetto in Poland during World War II, passports and other documents from the time period, and a model of the Batory, the real-life Polish cruise liner built in 1935, commissioned as a troopship during the Second World War, and used as the ship in Andrzej Munk's 1963 film adaptation Passenger (Pasa?erka). (The film will be screened at the Siskel Film Center on Feb. 8.)

Finally, "Dictated by Fate" represents the ongoing effects of war through contemporary art. A ceramic milk can by artist Leora Saposnik pays tribute to inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto, who buried three milk cans with documents and memories before the ghetto was destroyed. Only two were ever found, and Saposnik has created the third milk can in tribute to their bravery as well as to represent the ongoing effects of the Holocaust. The exhibit will also prominently display drawings from Rutu Modan's acclaimed 2013 graphic novel, The Property, the inspiration for the new klezmer opera of the same name. As a Polish Jew and the son of a Yiddish theater conductor, Weinberg spent his formative years steeped in klezmer and Jewish liturgical music-defining influences that later informed his compositions. Plus, like The Property's main character Regina Segal, Weinberg fled his homeland to escape the Nazi occupation.

The exhibit opens Friday, January 30 in the Opera Club Wine Cellar, located in the lower level of the Civic Opera House (20 N. Wacker). It is free to all ticketholders and will be on display through March 15. Special thanks to the Polish Museum of America and the Jewish Museum Milwaukee for lending pieces for the exhibit.

Polish Cabaret in Hyde Park

A Polish cabaret event has been added to the slate of "Memory and Reckoning" activities. The New Budapest Orpheum Society presents "Passage to Poland: Cabaret Poetics at Modernity's Crossroads." The performance explores Jewish music's modernity at the intersection of Yiddish film and Polish poetry, filled with the street songs and political ballads of workers and intellectuals, both secular and orthodox, drawing audiences to the historical landscapes from which The Passenger and The Property emerge.

The performance is Saturday, February 21 at 2pm at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts in Hyde Park. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are not required.

Ryan Opera Center WFMT Recital

The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago will feature music inspired by The Passenger's themes and historical period on Monday, March 2 at 6pm on 98.7WFMT (repeated on March 8 at 11pm) as part of the program's regular broadcast series. The Ryan Opera Center is Lyric's premier artist-development program, now celebrating its 40th season.

The Property
World Premiere Klezmer Opera

The centerpiece of "Memory and Reckoning" is the world premiere of
The Property, a klezmer opera by composer Wlad Marhulets and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann. Adapted from the acclaimed graphic novel by Rutu Modan, The Property tells the story of Regina Segal (mezzo-soprano Jill Grove) and her granddaughter Mica (soprano Anne Slovin), who travel to modern Warsaw to try to regain family property lost during World War II. As their journey unfolds, Regina is forced to confront painful truths about her past, including her history with Roman Gorski (baritone James Maddalena). Meanwhile, Mica navigates a relationship with their Polish tour guide, Tomasz (baritone Nathaniel Olson), and realizes their reasons for coming might not be all that they seemed. Additional roles in The Property are played by Sam Handley (an alumnus of Lyric's prestigious Ryan Opera Center training program), and Julianne Park. The work is scored for a small ensemble of six musicians, and will feature members of Chicago's celebrated Maxwell Street Klezmer Band.

The Property will have its world-premiere performances at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts in Hyde Park on February 25, 26, and 27, with additional performances at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie on March 4 and 5. Tickets and information about The Property are available at lyricopera.org/Property.

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