Mieczysław WEINBERG (1919-1996)
Die Passagierin, opera in two acts, Op. 97 (1967/68) [156.05]
Dshamilja Kaiser (mezzo-soprano, Lisa)
Will Hartmann (tenor, Walter)
Nadja Stefanoff (soprano, Marta)
Markus Butter (baritone, Tadeusz)
Chor der Oper Graz
Grazer Philharmoniker/Roland Kluttig
rec. live, 11-12 February 2021, Graz Opera, Austria
CAPRICCIO C5455 [77:36 + 78:29]
Composed in the cold war years of the 1960s, The Passenger remained locked within the Soviet Union’s distaste for and suppression of Mieczysław Weinberg’s work for decades, having to wait for a semi-staged performance in Moscow in 2006 and its full stage premiere at the Bregenz Festival in 2010. It is now recognised as one of Weinberg’s greatest achievements, and there are already a handful of DVD recordings of various productions since its rediscovery.
Using a multi-lingual but mostly German libretto by Alexander Medvedev - fully printed and translated into English in the booklet - the narrative plays out on two levels. The deck of an ocean liner on its way to Brazil sees Liese recognise Marta as a former inmate at Auschwitz concentration camp, where Liese’s post as a camp guard is as yet unknown to her diplomat husband Walter. The camp is depicted on a level below this, and the opera mixes a past and present in which painful Holocaust memories are encountered but are ultimately left without resolution, and the most powerful message that remains is that the dead should never be forgotten, and that they will never forgive what has happened.
This is all grim stuff, and you wouldn’t expect easy listening from such subject matter. Weinberg doesn’t back pedal with his musical imagery, and with a large orchestra including piano, harp, an extensive battery of percussion and even a jazz band there is no shortage of colour and contrast in the score. Shostakovich was enthusiastic about this piece, admiring it for its “beauty and greatness”. Weinberg is often seen as being derivative of his more famous friend, but while The Passenger has the occasional hint of Shostakovich’s harmonic gestures it is by no means a work you would mistake as being one of his.
Very well recorded, this Graz Opera production sounds full and energetic and is convincingly theatrical, balancing vocal clarity against orchestral detail very satisfactorily. There are no weak soloists, and the four main roles are superbly cast both in terms of singing and acting. This is one of those productions that was hit by the covid-19 pandemic. Former chief conductor of Graz Opera Oksana Lyniv would have conducted the premiere, but after postponement it was taken up by the company’s current chief conductor Roland Kluttig who does an excellent job. There is an unsentimental edge to the performance which is an essential part of this opera’s atmosphere, but while there are moments of real impact the overall feel is of restraint, the psychological threads running through the narrative unfolding with an unerring sense of purpose.
The climax of the opera is the penultimate scene in which Tadeusz, Marta’s partner and fellow prisoner, defiantly plays Bach’s Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 instead of, as requested, the Kommandant’s favourite waltz. Bach’s music becomes a horrific funeral march as the violin is smashed and Tadeusz is dragged away to his death. This is all in the tradition of grand opera, but is all the more moving for being a portrayal of heartrending tragedy within living memory. Weinberg’s own lived experiences under the Soviet regime lend the entire work a core of authenticity, and this is the kind of experience that reminds us all of the stark horrors that lurk beneath our thin veneer of civilisation.
The only other CD version of The Passenger I could find is on the Neos label conducted by Teodor Currentzis. I’ve only been able to hear this via a streaming service so I can’t really comment on sound quality, but it seems to be a noisier and more heart-on-sleeve performance when compared to this Graz production, which in any case is a tremendous recording and self-recommending to anyone interested in 20th century opera and Mieczysław Weinberg in particular.
Dominy Clements
