The Passenger by Polish composer Mieczysław Weinberg at Lyric Opera in Chicago

Lyric Opera and the Polish Consulate in Chicago continue their partnership in support of Lyric’s 60th anniversary season’s productions featuring strong Polish themes.

The Passenger is Mieczysław Weinberg’s powerfully haunting opera conducted by Sir Andrew Davis in a new-to-Chicago production by David Pountney. Performance dates are Feb. 24, 28, Mar. 4, and 9 at 7:30pm; and Mar. 12 and 15 at 2pm. The Passenger will be sung in Polish, German, Russian, French, Yiddish, Greek, Czech, and English with projected English translations.

Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-96) and his librettist Alexander Medvedev (1927-2010) based their opera on the radio play and novel Passenger from Cabin Number 45 by Polish writer and survivor of the German concentration camps Auschwitz Zofia Posmysz. (Now 91, Ms. Posmysz attended the 70^th anniversary commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz on Jan. 27.) Zofia Posmysz will be in Chicago for “Memory and Reckoning” events surrounding the premiere – speaking at the Feb. 15 symposium at the Chicago Cultural Center and attending the opening-night performance of The Passenger on February 24. For complete details on all events and performances go to lyricopera.org/memory.

Composed in 1968 but not performed onstage until 2010 when it premiered at Austria’s Bregenz Festival, The Passenger offers a riveting story of a woman whose past returns to haunt her almost beyond endurance. That woman is Liese (mezzo-soprano Daveda Karanas) who, when first seen, is traveling with her husband Walter (tenor Brandon Jovanovich) to his new diplomatic post in Brazil. On board Liese thinks she sees a Polish woman, Marta (soprano Amanda Majeski), whom she assumed was dead. Liese’s terror becomes obsessive, compelling her to reveal to Walter that she had worked as an overseer at Auschwitz, where Marta had been among the inmates. The rest of the opera concentrates on events involving Liese and Marta at Auschwitz, including Marta’s reunion with her lover, Tadeusz (baritone Joshua Hopkins, debut), and Marta’s friendships with Katya (soprano Kelly Kaduce, debut) and Bronka (mezzo-soprano Liuba Sokolova, debut).

Lyric Opera presentation was made possible, among others, also thanks to additional support by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music program. The full list of contributors can be found here. 

The Passenger is a coproduction of Bregenzer Festspiele, Austria, Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa Warszawa, English National Opera (ENO), London, and Teatro Real, Madrid. 

For tickets and information call (312) 827-5600 or go to lyricopera.org/passenger. Learn more about this production at lyricopera.org/InsidePassenger. Follow the conversation on Twitter: #LyricPassenger.

The February 24 opening night performance will be broadcast live on 98.7WFMT and streamed on wfmt.com starting at 7:15pm. For those listening to the broadcast, live mobile titles will be available at lyricoperalive.org.

The full program of the events related to Memory and Reckoning, including the Feb. 15 discussion at Chicago Cultural Center with Zofia Posmysz in attendance, the gallery exhibit “Dictated by Fate” opening Jan. 30 at Civic Opera House and the Feb. 21 Polish cabaret event at Logan Center for the Arts and can be found here. 

In conjunction with Lyric Opera’s performances of The Passenger, Lyric Unlimited is collaborating with a variety of cultural institutions to present “Memory and Reckoning.” A wide-ranging series of events exploring and amplifying the themes and messages of Weinberg’s important work, “Memory and Reckoning” includes discussions, musical performances, a film screening, and the world premiere of a newly commissioned klezmer opera, The Property, by Polish composer Wlad Marhulets. The Property is a klezmer opera adapted from the acclaimed graphic novel by Rutu Modan. It tells tells the story of Regina Segal (mezzo-soprano Jill Grove) and her granddaughter Mica (soprano Anne Slovin), who travel to modern Warsaw to try to regain family property lost during World War II. As their journey unfolds, they realize their reasons for coming might not be all that they seemed. The Property will have its world-premiere performances at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts in Hyde Park on February 25, 26, and 27, with additional performances at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie on March 4 and 5.  Tickets and information about The Property are available at lyricopera.org/Property.