Cabaret of Hope: Warsaw 1941 Program

CABARET OF HOPE WARSAW 1941

APRIL 13 & 14, 2022 • 7:30 PM Music Hall • Wilks Studio

Presented in collaboration with

JEWISH CINCINNATI

BICENTENNIAL jewishcincy200.org

INTRODUCTION

T

he war against Ukraine weighs heavily on all of us. The images of devastation, unbridled murder, and destruction are impossible to ignore.

Yet the war against Ukraine touches each of us differently. It depends on what experiences we bring to understanding it. For some, it is the recollection of a family member in the armed services. For others, it is the closeness to immigrant friends from Ukraine. For me, it is the Holocaust that murdered all four of my grandparents. And yet, life, it seems, goes on.

When my mother was in the ghetto of Lutsk, a city that was recently bombed, she volunteered for an escape route suggested to her by a heroic Ukrainian. For three days after her escape, every single man, woman, and child in the ghetto was murdered. She was the last survivor of 17,500 Jews. After the war, she met my father in a refugee camp, and they fell in love and decided to marry. I was their firstborn. Life, it seems, goes on.

I have spent my entire professional and personal life bringing people to an appreciation of the inhumanity that we are capable of, to record in a precise manner what the Holocaust represented. This includes not just who was murdered, but who the murderers were and how the murders took place. To know that is to plant the seeds to prevent another genocide, another destruction of innocent lives.

Cabaret of Hope: Warsaw 1941 is my return to music, bringing together the themes of my life and the nurture of my upbringing and formative education. The ghettos of Eastern Europe were no more than a holding pen for those awaiting the decisions by the Nazi murderers on when and how Jews should be killed or serve the murderous state. And yet, Jewish booksellers continued to sell books. Jewish nurses and doctors continued to heal as best they could. Jewish barbers cut hair. And Jewish instrumentalists, poets, and singers continued to ply their talents. Their hope was not survival in the long term. Their hope was survival in the short term—a penny earned, a meal procured, a night of shelter.

In bringing forward the music of 1941 and the musical recreation of Café Sztuka, we speak to the humanity of the ghetto’s prisoners, to their bravery, to their desire to hold onto life. We will all go home after this performance; most of those represented performers we will hear had no such fortune. That is why I created this offering, and that is why my dear friend Evans joined me in bringing it to you.

If this music haunts your soul and if this music touches your heart, know that you alone know the outcome of the Warsaw Ghetto; our performers did not. They knew of the Nazi barbarity. They knew of the starvation and disease that was taking its toll on the ghetto. But they still did not know of Auschwitz and Birkenau, or the killing fields.

Just weeks ago, I was involved in the rescue of an elderly couple from Kharkiv. They arrived in Cincinnati at the end of March.

A few mornings ago, my daughter responded positively to a request by a refugee in Berlin for a piano so that he could play music again.

In Kyiv and Lviv, in Kharkiv and in Lutsk, we should not be surprised that people gather to sing the national anthem, to listen to a cellist or a piano player on the street. Cabaret of Hope—life, it seems, goes on.

— Rabbi Abie Ingber, Artistic Advisor to Cabaret of Hope: Warsaw 1941

ABOUT RABBI ABIE INGBER Rabbi Abie has advocated his entire life on behalf of social justice. As a teenager, he talked his way into John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s bedroom during their 1969 “Love In.” In 2009, he traveled to Darfur to share a message of hope, which his parents, who survived the Holocaust, instilled in him. In 2010, he traveled to Uganda and Kenya and then to Ethiopia. In the fall of 2012, he logged 24,734 miles as the keynote lecturer for the Cameroon Muslim Student Union and the Museum of Dialogue in Poland.

Rabbi Abie co-created the 2005 award-winning exhibit “A Blessing to One Another: Pope John Paul II and

the Jewish People,” which toured 18 cities and closed at the Vatican in 2015. In his role as an educator, NPR commentator, and as an accomplished lecturer and raconteur. Rabbi Abie charts a course for meaningfulness in life.

Rabbi Abie is the son of two Holocaust survivors. His parents met at a displaced persons camp after the war. He has raised his four daughters to emulate their grandparents’ values of love, compassion, and justice.

PROGRAM Sarah Folsom, vocalist; Victoria Okafor, soprano; Simon Barrad, baritone; Thomas Dreeze, baritone Polina Bespalko, piano; Matthew Umphreys, piano; Christina Haan, accordion

Cheek to Cheek from Top Hat ......................................................................................................... Irving Berlin The Ensemble (1888–1989) First shown in August 1935 in Hollywood. Within a year, the film and its songs crisscrossed Europe.

L’Accordéoniste ................................................................................................................................Michel Emer Sarah Folsom, Christina Haan, Matthew Umphreys (1906–1984) The “java” is a fast waltz, developed in France, where the participants dance scandalously close to one another.

Mack the Knife from The Threepenny Opera........................................................................................... Kurt Weill Sarah Folsom, Christina Haan, Matthew Umphreys (1900–1950) Leave Me Alone..................................................................................................................... Władysław Szlengel Simon Barrad (1912–1943) Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth........................................................................................Frédéric Chopin Polina Bespalko (1810–1849) Pianist Władysław Szpilman played only a portion of this work as Polish Radio was being bombed off the air by the invading Germans in September 1939.

Nie ma czego trzeba (Faded and Vanished), Op. 74, No. 13.........................................................Frédéric Chopin Thomas Dreeze, Polina Bespalko Ночь (Night), Op. 44................................................................................................................ Anton Rubinstein Victoria Okafor, Polina Bespalko (1829–1894) Prelude No. 2............................................................................................................................. George Gershwin Christina Haan, Matthew Umphreys (1898–1937) You Are Love from Show Boat............................................................................................................Jerome Kern Victoria Okafor, Simon Barrad, Matthew Umphreys (1885–1945) Show Boat’s European premiere was in London in 1928. Recordings of its top songs were released across Europe before the end of the year.

Rozhinkes mit Mandlen (Raisins and Almonds).................................................... trad. arr. Abraham Goldfaden Victoria Okafor, Matthew Umphreys (1840–1908) A Yiddish lullaby whose origins are lost in time, it was made famous by Goldfaden in his 1882 operetta Shulamith. It was produced in New York and starred Boris Thomashefsky, grandfather of celebrated American conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.

PROGRAM (continued) If Love Were All from Bitter Sweet.................................................................................................. Noël Coward Sarah Folsom, Matthew Umphreys (1889–1973) About Korczak........................................................................................................................ Władysław Szlengel Simon Barrad Pediatrician Janus Korczak founded an orphanage in Warsaw. Twice offered an escape from the ghetto, Korczak chose to stay with his orphans and marched with them to the Umshclagplatz in August 1942.

Der Atlas from Schwanengesang.....................................................................................................Franz Schubert Thomas Dreeze, Polina Bespalko (1797–1828) Kol Nidre................................................................................................................................ Władysław Szlengel Simon Barrad An die Musik..................................................................................................................................Franz Schubert Victoria Okafor, Polina Bespalko Cracovienne Fantastique, Op. 14, No. 6............................................................................. Ignacy Jan Paderewski Polina Bespalko (1860–1941) The most famous Polish musician after Chopin, Paderewski was also Poland’s prime minister after World War I. He died in exile in the U.S. while on a tour to raise funds for World War II Polish relief.

September Song from Knickerbocker Holiday......................................................................................... Kurt Weill Thomas Dreeze, Matthew Umphreys Weill and his wife Lotte Lenya fled Nazi Germany in 1933. They eventually settled in New York. Knickerbocker Holiday from 1938 was one of Weill’s Broadway successes, at once a romantic comedy and a political satire.

I Have a Date with Her at Nine.............................................................................................Henryk Warszawski Simon Barrad, Matthew Umphreys (1902–1977) Written for a 1937 Polish film starring Pola Negri, this song is still one of the all-time top 50 of Polish pop songs nearly a century later. At last count, there are more than 100 recordings of the song.

Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz....................................................................................... Harold Arlen Sarah Folsom, Matthew Umphreys (1905–1986) Though the film was released in August 1939, just weeks before the Germans invaded Poland, its theme song raced around Europe and was in Warsaw before the ghetto was created.

Zog nit Keynmol.................................................................................................................................Hirsh Glick The Ensemble (1922–1944) Inspired by news of the 1943 Warsaw Uprising, Glick wrote this song of resistance in the ghetto of Vilna, Lithuania.

It spread like wildfire across Europe and became the anthem of Jewish partisans for the rest of the war.

FEATURED ARTISTS Sarah Folsom, vocalist

At home in jazz, pop, and cabaret, Sarah Folsom is a sought-after performer in clubs and theaters across the Midwest. Best known for her interpretations of vintage American pop, Sarah has been featured with Cincinnati Opera, May Festival, Cincinnati Educational Television, ArtsWave, and TVHamilton.

Sarah is a founding artistic director and principal artist with Queen City Cabaret, through which she recently released her first album, Count Your Blessings: A Tribute to Rosemary Clooney. She has also produced several musical activism projects with QCC. Sarah received her master’s degree at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music.

Victoria Okafor, soprano

Soprano Victoria Okafor is a graduate of Shenandoah Conservatory and UC’s College-Conservatory of Music. Recent roles include Pamina (The Magic Flute), Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring), Servilia (La clemenza di Tito), and Barbarina (The Marriage of Figaro). Victoria has also originated roles in recent operatic workshops, including Scott Davenport Richards’s Blind Injustice, Gregory Spears’s Castor and Patience, and Kevin Puts’s The Hours. Victoria was an encouragement award recipient for the 2021 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a second prize winner of the 2021 Lotte Lenya Competition.

Simon Barrad, baritone

Known for innovative performance programming and arranging that melds jazz, classical, and folk, Grammy-nominated baritone Simon Barrad has been featured at the Art of the Piano Festival, the Ravinia Festival, Stanford Live, Marlboro Music Festival, and Opera San José. Other recent engagements include recitals at Wigmore Hall (London) and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.

Simon has been a mentor for ArtSmart, which provides free music and singing lessons to teenagers in underserved communities. Through his musical performing and mentorship, he strives to build a more equitable world of empathy and understanding.

Thomas Dreeze, baritone

Thomas Dreeze has enjoyed a varied career in music, arts administration, and events management that has taken him to Chicago, Boston, London, and New York. He has performed more than ten roles with Cincinnati Opera and returns in June 2022 for Benoit/Alcindoro in La Bohème. Thomas has sung with The Atlanta Symphony, the Hilton Head Symphony under music director John Morris Russell, the Reno Philharmonic, and the Bellingham Festival. In 2023, Thomas makes his Carnegie Hall debut in the world premiere of The Golden Door by Paul Stanbery.

Polina Bespalko, piano After musical studies in Russia, Polina Bespalko made her American debut as an honored member of the Russian-U.S. Cultural Music Exchange. She has appeared in concerts with Matinée Musicale, at The Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C.), and with the 2002 Winter Olympic Games (Salt Lake City). A medal winner in prestigious contests such as the Wideman International Piano Competition (Louisiana), the World Piano Competition (Cincinnati), and the Rachmaninov Concerto Competition (Sicily), Polina earned her master’s degree from the Moscow Conservatory and both her Artist Diploma and D.M.A. at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music.

Matthew Umphreys, piano Matthew Umphreys works as a coach, pianist, and music director with Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Song Initiative, The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati, American Traditions Competition, and the Schmidt Vocal Institute. Along with Sarah Folsom, he is the artistic director of Queen City Cabaret, a jazz cabaret concert series celebrating Cincinnati’s music heritage, which recently released a debut album, Count Your Blessings: A Tribute to Rosemary Clooney. Matthew serves as music director at Columbia Baptist and Linwood Baptist churches (Cincinnati) and holds degrees from Luther College and UC’s College-Conservatory of Music.

FEATURED ARTISTS Christina Haan, accordionist

Christina Haan is a coach and collaborative pianist at Miami University. With an extensive background in opera, music theater, and choral music, her professional engagements have included Cincinnati Opera, Kentucky Opera, UC’s College-Conservatory of Music, Central State University, The Ohio State University, Vocal Arts Ensemble, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Rising Star Singers Audition Network, Bel Canto Northwest, Opera Theatre of Lucca (Italy), and the American Institute of Musical Studies (Austria). Dr. Haan studied at Portland State University and CCM, and performs regularly as an organist, pianist, and harpsichordist—and occasionally, accordionist.

Joshua Cook, stage director Joshua Cook is an adjunct instructor of opera at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music, from which he earned degrees in vocal performance and opera directing. In 2021, Joshua joined Cincinnati Opera’s Summer at Summit as the live video score assistant, working on productions of Carmen, Tosca, and The Barber of Seville. Other recent productions Joshua has directed include act one of La Rondine, La Voix Humaine, and David Lang’s Little Match Girl Passion (CCM), Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum (Collegium Cincinnati), and Die Fledermaus (Opera Project Columbus).

ARTISTS BEING EVOKED The real people we remember through tonight’s performance

Vera Gran

Miriam Eisenstadt

Władysław Szlengel

Leon Lewek Daytner

Władysław Szpilman

Andrzej Goldfeder

Bołesław Brodecki

ARTISTS BEING EVOKED Vera Gran

Vera Gran was a Polish singer, film and theater actress of Jewish origin. Born in 1916, Gran appeared in the cabarets of the ghetto, singing of love and hope at the legendary Café Sztuka. She died in November 2007 in Paris. Gran was the only one in her family to survive the war. For the rest of her life, she fought accusations that she collaborated with the Gestapo in exchange for making it out of the ghetto.

Gran published an autobiography in 1980 to address the accusations.

Sarah Folsom sings the repertoire of Vera Gran.

Miriam Eisenstadt

Miriam Eisenstadt was a lyric soprano born in 1921 in Warsaw. In 1941 and 1942, she performed almost daily at the Café Sztuka. Eisenstadt earned the sobriquet of “The Nightingale of the Ghetto” by virtue of the timbre and versatility of her voice. She was admired not only for her technique, but also for her sensibility and subtleness.

Listeners thought of her as someone on a mission—she made the last days of the inhabitants of the ghetto more bearable. Eisenstadt was murdered in the Umschlagplatz in August 1942.

Victoria Okafor sings the repertoire of Miriam Eisenstadt.

Władysław Szlengel

Born in 1914 in Warsaw, Władysław Szlengel was a poet, journalist, stage actor, and lyricist. In poetry, Szlengel was a bitter observer of life in Poland in the 1930s, including the changes in Polish-Jewish relations and the rise of antisemitism. In the Warsaw Ghetto, Szlengel wrote pieces for the Café Sztuka and others. Szlengel was known as the “chronicler of the sinking.” He perished on May 8, 1943, during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

was a baritone and cousin of Dr. Herman Daytner, an accomplished pianist and doctor who survived the war. Leon Daytner was murdered by the Germans. The exact date of his death is unknown. Dr. Herman Datyner escaped from occupied Warsaw and after the war, he emigrated to the U.S. He settled in New York where he was a successful physician until his death in 1975.

Thomas Dreeze sings the repertoire of Leon Lewek Daytner.

Władysław Szpilman

Władysław Szpilman was born in Sosnoviec, Poland in 1911.

By age 20, he was a student of pianist Artur Schnabel at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. In 1933, Szpilman returned to Warsaw, where he quickly became a celebrated pianist and composer. During the war, before his escape to the German side—where he survived in hiding until late July 1944— Szpilman played regularly at Café Sztuka. His wartime story was adapted for the screen by Roman Polanski in the 2002 film The Pianist. Szpilman died in Warsaw in July 2000.

Polina Bespalko plays the repertoire of Władysław Szpilman.

Andrzej Goldfeder

Andrzej Goldfeder was born around 1900. He graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory in 1924. When Władysław Szpilman was invited to play at the Café Sztuka, he said he would accept the engagement only if Goldfeder could be his fellow pianist, specializing in the music of Gershwin, Kern, and other Broadway composers. Goldfeder eventually escaped from the ghetto and lived two years in hiding. He was shot by the Germans in 1944 in a small town near demolished Warsaw, just a week before the Soviet Army marched in.

Matthew Umphreys plays the repertoire of Andrzej Goldfeder.

Simon Barrad recites the poetry of Władysław Szlengel.

Bołesław Brodecki, Warsaw native, accordionist and

Leon Lewek Daytner

Christina Haan plays the repertoire of Bołesław Brodecki.

We know only a little about Leon Daytner beyond his haunting photo. He was born 1890 in Warsaw. Daytner

Holocaust survivor. Photo circa 1941.

PRODUCTION AND ARTISTIC CREDITS Lighting Director and Resident Lighting Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas C. Hase Associate Lighting Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alex Mason Stage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kate Brockmeier Supertitles Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marjoram J E Lynn Supertitles Caller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Langley Hair and Makeup Artists . . . . . . . . . Anne Taylor, Jessalyn Laureé, Lindsay Emmert IATSE Local 5 IATSE Local 864

PRODUCER’S NOTE This project originated in the imagination of our artistic advisor Rabbi Abie Ingber. In 1994, Abie created a program with students from Hebrew Union College and students from CCM that combined Warsaw Ghetto diary excerpts, poetry, and music. A few years ago, pianist Polina Bespalko shared some of the original materials with me. This led to meetings with Abie, and the idea of mounting a professional version of the 1994 project was born. Last fall, the Cincinnati Jewish Bicentennial celebrations were announced, giving us a collaborating partner. We were able to raise funding from generous donors, and our project has come to life.

The performers you will meet tonight had real life counterparts in the Warsaw Ghetto. While we have not asked our artists to impersonate their historical antecedents, we have chosen both performers and repertoire with an eye towards giving you a sense of who these brave women and men were, and what they sang and spoke.

I would like to thank: • Rita Jacobs, co-founder of radio station WFMT Chicago, whose 1979 program “Raisins with Almonds” introduced me to Jewish culture.

• Mateusz Rulski-Bożek, now a celebrated author of Polish children’s books and songs. On a Sunday morning in Warsaw in 1996, Mateusz opened my eyes to the Warsaw Ghetto.

• Polina Bespalko, for bringing this project to us.

• Abie Ingber, whose dream it was to bring this program to life again nearly 30 years after its first incarnation.

• Ted Silberstein, for opening doors to the funding of this project.

• Thomas Dreeze, whose musical guidance helped shape the program.

• Piotr Buszewski, Polish tenor in our 2019 Romeo and Juliet, who turned into music sleuth and found rare original sheet music to the Henryk Warszawski song.

• Tyler Benware, full time Atlanta Symphony Operations Director and part-time music detective who helped find more rare manuscripts.

• Elena Kholodova, Russian coach; Sylvia Fuks, Yiddish coach; Magda Travis, Ursula Tempska, and Theresa Merrill, Polish coaches.

This program is part performance, part reminiscence, and part commentary on the beauty, terror, and unflagging spirit that animated evenings in the Sztuka and at other cafés in the ghetto.

— Evans Mirageas, The Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director, Cincinnati Opera

DIRECTOR’S NOTE September 23, 1939. The streaking hiss of Nazi bombs enveloped the skies of Warsaw; the cries of a forgotten nation consumed the hearts of Warsaw. The invasion of Poland was underway and within six weeks, a Jewish ghetto was established in Warsaw. Seeking community against the face of an unknown future, the Jewish people did what they knew best: resisted.

Drawing from the rich tradition of Polish cabaret and supper clubs, artists and wealthy benefactors banded together and established new artistic cafés in which to spend their evenings. Jewel among these new cafés was the Sztuka, where we find ourselves tonight at Music Hall.

I have had the honor of joining Cincinnati Opera in the development and treatment of this work over the last two years. Our work on this project had been led from

a reminder of the Café Sztuka’s defiant expression of humanity in the face of Nazi oppression. Unfortunately, we find ourselves trapped in similarly surreal parallels today, making tonight’s cabaret all the more necessary to share.

Thank you to this cast for their willingness to explore and their dedication to this story, to Evans Mirageas for his trust and mentorship in bringing this evening to the stage, to Abie Ingber for his guidance and impact, to all that brought this evening to life behind the scenes, and to my friends and family for their belief and support throughout this project.

Chag Pesach Sameach!

— Joshua Cook

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati • Jewish Federation of Cincinnati • Mona and Richard Kerstine, M.D. Mona Kerstine is pleased to support this special event in loving memory of her grandparents, whom she never knew. They were killed by the Nazis—her mother’s parents at Auschwitz, and her father’s parents at Treblinka. • Eric and Jennifer Dauer • ArtsWave • Ohio Arts Council