Opera Review: “The Uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto”
“Still standing: Harry Bialor, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor, composed the opera ‘The Uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto,’ playing in Flatbush on Feb. 9.” || Photo and photo caption credit to Jane Leathers originally published by the Brooklyn Paper.
The opinions reflected in this OpEd are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of staff, faculty and students of The King's College
On Sunday, February 9, the Hannah Senesh Society of North America presented a performance of Harry Bialor’s opera, “The Uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto.” Bialor, a Holocaust survivor, wrote both the lyrics and the music for the opera, having received musical training at both the Munich and Brooklyn Conservatory.
I walked into the auditorium, prepared to be inspired by an opera highlighting heroism and sacrifice, but was shocked to find most of the seats empty. Few had come to witness this re-telling of historical anti-semitism–something New Yorker’s truly need to be reminded of at this hour.
The opera tells the story of the armed uprising of Jews facing deportation to Nazi extermination camps in the Polish ghetto in 1943. The event resulted in the death of over 300,000 Polish Jews and the destruction of the ghetto–a story never before told on stage.
A cast of approximately 20 singers and a small orchestra performed the opera to an intimate audience of roughly 40 people Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn. Performed last October, this presentation is the only one planned for this year.
Directed by Jane Leathers, a former Illinois public school teacher with Broadway aspirations, and conducted by Pacien Mazzagatti of New York City Opera, the performance took place in the auditorium of Yeshiva of Flatbush, an Orthodox Jewish school.
The opera is divided into two acts. Act I takes place in the southern Israeli region of the Negev in 1973. The characters in Act I reside in a kibbutz (a communal, rural community); they attempt to make a life for themselves in the young nation of Israel and recall the events from Poland during the holocaust.
Residents of the kibbutz in Act I either lived through the uprising or are descendants of those who did. The act follows the Jewish community through their efforts to try and establish a normal life while also being weary of attacks from hostile border countries.
Throughout the act there are drastic shifts in mood, as the music changes between hopeful, frightening and joyful melodic tunes. It concludes in a joyful scene as the community rejoices upon the rescue of several Jewish hostages. Act I is followed by a brief intermission..
Audience members enjoyed Act I, one man calling it, “very dramatic.”
“In the first act of the opera, members of a kibbutz recall tragic tales from the Warsaw ghetto.” || Photo and photo caption credit to Jane Leathers originally published by the Brooklyn Paper.
Act 2, takes us back in time to Poland 1943, before the events of Act I, where a Jewish ghetto had formed in Warsaw. It began with a description of the Nazi reign of terror and a display of how the Jews were lined up to be killed and tortured.
“These were our friends, our classmates, our neighbors too,” sang Thomas Massey, playing the role of Mordechai Anielewiez, “Killing us without mercy for a pair of shoes.”
In this act, more emphasis is placed on the relationships between the Jews and their shared hardships than on the actual uprising itself. The songs, sung with deep-seated passion and angst, made evident the many atrocities that the Nazis had inflicted on the Jews.
After a somber portrayal of the dire position faced by those in the ghetto, the opera ends with a cut back to the future. In this segment, the singers once again celebrate the existence of Israel and express a desire for peace.
The opera contains compelling themes like the justified uprising of those who suffer in silence, the Jewish desire for peace, and human depravity.
The general, the overwhelming longing for peace comes out in the songs. Feelings of betrayal, abandonment and horror are expressed as Polish Jews describe the sadness they faced as they discovered their fellow Poles had aided the Nazis.
Another strong theme throughout the opera is that of establishing a Jewish homeland and a deep love for Israel. The final scene of the opera features a young boy enthusiastically waving an Israeli flag. Much of the opera focuses on the importance of Israel as a home for the Jews and its precarious position in the Middle East.
Even though the acts were not structured chronologically and the audience never received an explanation as to why, the opera was musically produced very well, with the singers and orchestra giving a stellar performance.
According to the director in an interview with the Brooklyn Paper, Bialor’s opera stands out among other stories of the Nazi regime because it highlights the hope felt by those fighting the Holocaust, and the victory felt by those who survived it.
In New York City, a place where several anti-Semitic attacks have taken place in the last couple of months, the auditorium was noticably somber and the opera served as a timely reminder. Hopefully this opera, with it’s small following, will be able to inspire people to never abandon the innocent, even if it comes at a cost.