Revisiting An Old Friend

I am revisiting an old friend.

Long Beach Opera will present one peformance of "The Diary of Anne Frank" on Saturday, May 15, 2010 at the Barclay Theater in Irvine, CA.  Reviews of our 2007 performances were excellent:

"..an emotional tour de force. [Maljian's] singing was commanding and brilliant, fresh and strong from beginning to end...this production functioned on an authentically high level. Mitisek conducted with authority and his nine piece ensemble was exceptional." - The Los Angeles Times

I picked up the music at the opera office today. I am grateful to see that most of my original markings remain, even though the rental music has traveled around the world since last I saw it. It is a bittersweet reunion.

The music is challenging and powerful. Ani Maldjian (last seen as Madame Mao in LBO's Nixon In China) is stunning as the young Anne Frank. The most moving part of the whole production, however, is Holocaust survivor Laura Hillman.

Director/Conductor Andreas Mitisek and Laura Hillman

Upon first meeting Laura, it is hard to grasp that this elegant, friendly woman survived 7 concentration camps. During the course of the opera, as she reads excerpts from her book I Will Plant You A Lilac Tree, one can only begin to grasp the depth of the sheer horror she endured as a Jew in the hands of the Nazis during World War II.

Ani and I had a chance to talk about the difficulty of this opera at the Nixon In China cast party last month. I remarked that I spent the entire first rehearsal with Laura dissolved in tears as I struggled to play my part. After that I had to completely shut out what was happening on stage and focus entirely on the job of playing the flute. Ani said she has to remove herself even as she sings or she'd never be able to perform the role.

Laura is the one who suffers. Unlike Ani and me, she is not a performer. This was her life. She often falls ill after the performances for weeks at a time under the sheer weight of the memories.

If you can, please join us as we revisit this old friend. Hearing directly from a survivor of the Holocaust, one of Oskar Schindler's Jews, will leave you forever changed.  As painful as it may be to be a part of this evening, you will not regret it.

Garage Opera Revisited

Yesterday found me back in the bowels of the Sinai Temple parking garage for a rehearsal of Long Beach Opera's "Anne Frank".



I have to remind myself that I am there to do my job. It is difficult, however, after hearing Holocaust survivor Laura (Hannalore) Hillman speak these words as she reads aloud a letter she received from her mother while away at school as a young woman:

"Dearest Hannelore,

I'm sorry I didn't write to you sooner, but I have been terribly worried. Six weeks ago your papa was taken to Buchenwald, a concentration camp near Weimar. He was on his way home from work, riding his bicycle, when the Gestapo stopped him and took him to their headquarters. The next day, when I inquired about where he was and asked if I could bring him a change of clothes, I was told he had already left the city and wouldn't need the clothes. You can imagine how concerned and upset I have been since. Day after day I prayed for his safe return.

Yesterday the postman brought a letter and a small box postmarked "Buchenwald". The letter said the following; "Martin Wolff died of unknown causes on March 14, 1942. Urn contains his ashes."

Hannelore, your papa is dead.

It is an indescribable privilege to be in the same room with Laura, a glowing woman with a beautiful smile, as she shares the agonizing nightmare of her life during the Holocaust. It is hard for me not to be swept away into the horror and the hope that this Schindler's List Jew experienced.

But I've got my own role in this opera.

So I sit and focus on the music in front of me and play my flute to the best of my ability.

Then, after I've played the final note of my music, I sit and and quietly weep and pray "Never Again."

Here is a clip taken at last Thursday's first rehearsal in Long Beach: