Mieczyslaw Weinberg completed his opera The Passenger in 1968 in the Soviet Union only to see it promptly banned by the authorities. It didn't receive its first full production until 40 years later, long after the composer's death.
Now, prior to a Chicago staging next year at the Lyric Opera, The Passenger makes its New York premiere by the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus at the Park Avenue Armory, co-presented by Lincoln Center Festival. The opera is a co-production of Bregenzer Festispiele, Teatr Wieki, English National Opera and Teatro Real.
Based on Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz's semi-autobiographical novel Pasazerkaby, Weinberg's opera relates a chance encounter between a Holocaust survivor and her Nazi overseer aboard an ocean liner headed for Brazil. Directed by David Pountney and conducted by Patrick Summers, the production takes audiences from the deck of the luxury liner to the hell of a Nazi death camp. The Daily Telegraph called The Passenger "one of the most unflinching engagements with this subject ever made."
Performances are July 10, 12 and 13. Tickets entitle spectators to attend a 6PM prelude concerts of Weinberg's chamber music as well.
