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VOL.25, NO.11
Cousins debut Holocaust opera
Result of serendipity The central relationship in the opera — between a Jewish survivor and a German descendant of a Nazi sympathizer — is fictitious, but several real-life relationships have determined the production and plot. How the opera came to be produced is a series of serendipitous coincidences, starting with the fact that Hamer’s parents live in the same retirement community in Rockville, Md. as the father of the conductor of the National Philharmonic orches-
NOVEMBER 2013
I N S I D E …
PHOTO BY CHRISTOPER MEYERS
By Barbara Ruben When Mary Azrael was a young teen in the 1950s, she was inspired to become a writer by reading Anne Frank’s vivid descriptions of her life in hiding during World War II. But even when, as an adult, she spent a year living in Amsterdam and found herself coincidentally living around the corner from Frank’s home, Azrael never dreamed she would one day write an opera about the Holocaust. The Baltimore-based poet has written the libretto for a new opera in English that weaves together stories from the Holocaust and more modern times. It will be performed in its entirety for the first time on Nov. 9, at the Music Center at Strathmore in N. Bethesda. That is the 75th anniversary of kristallnacht — a night of violent Nazi attacks on Jews, synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses throughout Germany. For many, the “night of broken glass” marks the unofficial start to the Holocaust. The opera, Lost Childhood, is based in part on a memoir by psychiatrist Yehuda Nir, who went into hiding from the Nazis as a child. Lost Childhood takes place in Poland and Germany during World War II and in Manhattan in 1993. “The story,” noted Azrael, “is often darkly humorous and ultimately triumphant, as the family evades the monstrous power of the Third Reich.” The opera’s composer is Janice Hamer, Azrael’s cousin, with whom she’s collaborated on other choral pieces. “So we kind of blithely said, ‘Why not have an opera next?’ We somehow thought it would take a year or so to write, and it ended up taking 15,” Hamer said.
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LEISURE & TRAVEL
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ARTS & STYLE
Janice Hamer, at the piano, composed the music for the opera Lost Childhood; Mary Azrael is the librettist. The opera, which will have its first performance on Nov. 9, deals with life in Poland during the Holocaust and the repercussions on two men more than a half century later.
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tra, Piotr Gajewski (pronounced Guyevski), and have attended several concerts together. Piotr’s father, Ryszard Gajewski, and his family were imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto — a tiny corner of the city where more than 400,000 Jews were forced to live. However, they managed to escape and, like Nir, hid in plain sight posing as Polish Catholics for the duration of the war. Ryszard Gajewski and Nir were both born in 1930 and lived in several of the same towns, although they never knew each other. A sad, additional parallel is that both men are now gravely ill and not expected to live much longer. “It felt somehow meant to be,” said Hamer,
63, when the elder Gajewski encouraged her to contact his son about possibly producing the opera.
A Wagner connection In addition to a fictionalized Nir, the opera is also built around a character much like the real-life Gottfried Wagner, the greatgrandson of composer Richard Wagner. In part because of Wagner’s anti-Semitism, Hitler found his music particularly appealing. Members of the Wagner family (Richard Wagner died 50 years before Hitler came to power) became friends with Hitler during the war. They provided Hitler See OPERA, page 64
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