DEAR ERICH A Jazz Opera By Ted Rosenthal Announced At The New York City Opera

The New York City Opera/National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene's world premiere production will feature a cast of nine headed by Jessica Tyler Wright, Glenn Seven Allen, Rachel Zatcoff, and Peter Kendall Clark.

DEAR ERICH, tells a compelling true story of tragedy, love, and redemption. Inspired by the discovery of over 200 letters written in Germany between 1938 and 1941 by Rosenthal's grandmother, Herta Rosenthal, to his father, Erich, a Jewish scholar who escaped to the United States.

Set in wartime Germany and Chicago, Rosenthal, a winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition, employs the musical idioms of the 1930's and 40's to create this poignant retelling of his own family history - the heartbreaking story of a family's dual fates - a son's journey and new life in the New World, and the cruel demise of his family at the hands of the Nazis which he was powerless to stop.

Tickets, starting at $25, are available at www.nytf.org.