New York Premiere

The Passenger

Mieczyslaw Weinberg
David Pountney
Patrick Summers
Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus

New York Premiere

The Passenger

Mieczyslaw Weinberg
David Pountney
Patrick Summers
Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus

July 10, 2014 - July 13, 2014

Wade Thompson Drill Hall

An encounter between two women—one a former Auschwitz guard, the other a former inmate of the female barracks—aboard an ocean liner plunges them both back into the horrors of the Holocaust, pitting perpetrator against victim in a moral battle between guilt and denial, retribution and absolution. Based on the semi-autobiographical novel Pasazerkaby by Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz, exiled Polish-Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s opera is an astonishing account of the horrors of World War II and the unshakable hold that memories and torment from that time can have, even today.

Visionary director David Pountney brilliantly stages this landmark work, taking audiences on a voyage from the stylish deck of the luxury liner to the squalor of a Nazi death camp where cruelty, despair, and unspeakable courage are evident in equal measure. Conductor Patrick Summers leads the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus through Weinberg’s emotionally-searing score, which had been banned by Soviet authorities upon its completion in 1968, resurfacing for its first full staging some 40 years later and only now makes its eagerly-awaited New York premiere.

Performances

Thursday–Sunday at 7:30pm

Prelude Concerts

Free prelude concerts of Weinberg’s chamber music will be performed nightly by the ARC Ensemble at 6:00pm in the Board of Officers Room for ticket holders of that evening’s performance with a reservation.

“harrowing and powerful…a gripping production….The tension between past and present is not just embedded in the music and libretto but built right into the spatial concept of the imposing production by the director David Pountney."

The New York Times

“this three-story set… was simply breathtaking surrounded by arching girders and steel bleachers in the vast expanses of the Armory”

New York Observer

Gallery

  • The New York premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger at Park Avenue Armory, co-presented with Lincoln Center Festival.
    Photo: Stephanie Berger

    1/11

  • Joseph Kaiser (Walter) and Michelle Breedt (Liese) in the New York premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger at Park Avenue Armory, co-presented with Lincoln Center Festival.
    Photo: Stephanie Berger

    2/11

  • The New York premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger at Park Avenue Armory, co-presented with Lincoln Center Festival.
    Photo: Stephanie Berger

    3/11

  •  The New York premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger at Park Avenue Armory, co-presented with Lincoln Center.
    Photo: Stephanie Berger

    4/11

  • Kathryn Day (Bronka) and Kelly Kaduce (Katya) in the New York premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger at Park Avenue Armory, co-presented with Lincoln Center Festival.
    Photo: Stephanie Berger

    5/11

  • Melody Moore (Marta) and Kelly Kaduce (Katya) in the New York premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger at Park Avenue Armory, co-presented with Lincoln Center Festival.
    Photo: Stephanie Berger

    6/11

  • Melody Moore (Marta), Kelly Kaduce (Katya), and Morgan Smith (Tadeusz) in the New York premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger at Park Avenue Armory, co-presented with Lincoln Center Festival.
    Photo: Stephanie Berger

    7/11

  • Melody Moore (Marta) in the New York premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger at Park Avenue Armory, co-presented with Lincoln Center Festival.
    Photo: Stephanie Berger

    8/11

  • The New York premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger at Park Avenue Armory, co-presented with Lincoln Center Festival.
    Photo: Stephanie Berger

    9/11

  • The New York premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger at Park Avenue Armory, co-presented with Lincoln Center Festival.
    Photo: Stephanie Berger

    10/11

  • Melody Moore (Marta) in the New York premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger at Park Avenue Armory, co-presented with Lincoln Center Festival.
    Photo: Stephanie Berger

    11/11

Production Credits

The Passenger is a co-production of Bregenzer Festispiele, Teatr Wieki, English National Opera, and Teatro Real.

Support

Houston Grand Opera’s performances of The Passenger in New York are generously underwritten by Bill and Sara Morgan and Amanda and Morris Gelb.

This production is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

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