The Atlanta Opera and The Temple present “Identity and Conflict,” a concert and panel discussion in honor of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, at 6:30 pm. on Wednesday, May 1.
The evening features a performance of “Another Sunrise” for soprano and chamber ensemble by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer. Soloist Esther Tonea is a frequent collaborator with Heggie, and is a 2022 winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s Eric and Dominique Laffornt Competition.
“Another Sunrise” is a 30-minute work based on the life of Krystyna Zywulska during the Nazi occupation of Poland. With her mother, Zywulska walked out of the Warsaw ghetto in broad daylight in 1942 and joined the Polish resistance. While effectively denying her Jewish identity, she was captured and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau where she continued her resistance efforts.
The work is set in the 1960s, when Zywulska is reflecting on her lost identity and struggling to define her future.
The Atlanta Opera presents this work in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls during the Opera’s mainstage performances of Die Walküre by Richard Wagner (a controversial anti-Semite whose works are effectively banned in Israel to this day). The community conversation explores the impact influential individuals and artists have on society, both positive and negative, including Wagner.
The performance will be followed by a community discussion on identity, personal choices, and social pressures moderated by radio host Lois Reitzes. Panel members include Rabbi Peter Berg, Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun, and Scheer.
“This year’s commemoration of Yom HaShoah is particularly poignant in the face of rising antisemitism, a hatred that has always brewed under the surface of society through the ages and has now bubbled over in the wake of the October 7th attack,” said Cantor Tracey Scher of The Temple. “This shared event will help us understand through the lens of a one-act opera and conversation, the stark reminder that the Holocaust is not a distant memory and the enormous impact that hatred has on marginalized societies.”
Tickets cost $25 for the performance at The Temple, 1589 Peachtree St., NE, Atlanta.
