The Women's Orchestra in Auschwitz - Opera Premiere

[truehobbit]

I thought this was interesting news to share, and I'm interested to hear what people think of the idea.

I'm not sure how many of you have heard of Fania Fenelon's book "Playing for Time", an autobiography about her time in Auschwitz, in which she was a member of women's orchestra there.

I must admit I haven't read the book completely. I started it when a friend gave it to me ten years or so ago, but didn't have the nerve to finish it. Should give it another try - maybe I'm tougher now.

A German composer wrote an opera based on this book which premiered two days ago.
I haven't seen the opera (and don't think I'll go to see it), but saw a TV report about it. I thought the images were somewhat weak compared to the reality they try to represent, but then I think you can't reproduce this kind of reality on the stage.
The composer said that opera seemed to him to be the ideal form to deal with a subject that couldn't be grasped through reason, because opera was an art form that didn't need reason to speak to its audience.

For further info, here's an article on the opera: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... refer=muse

And here are a number of stage-photos:
http://www.theater-kr-mg.de/160-8-958-fotos.htm

[Jnyusa]

Fascinating. Thanks for the links, Hobby.

I did not see the movie when it came out ... Vanessa Redgrave played Fenelon, didn't she?

All artistic forms are going to be inadequate to that reality, I think, but it is inevitable that art will attempt to transmute everything in human experience; and what art cannot transmute gets forgotten.

Jn