Weinberg: Die Passagierin ('the Passenger') - Oper Graz (2021) [Blu-ray]

Mieczysław Weinberg’s powerful Holocaust drama Die Passagierin channels his and his family’s ordeals of wartime and Soviet persecution, applying them musically to Zofia Posmysz’s autobiographical novel. The score was praised by Shostakovich for its ‘beauty and greatness’, with a narrative that unfolds on an ocean liner bound for Brazil on which a former Auschwitz guard and one of her Polish prisoners confront impossible moral conflict and harrowing flashbacks in music that is sparse, dark, sardonic and intermittently tender. This acclaimed Oper Graz production draws us movingly into the raw unimaginable madness of this imperishable moment in history.

Filmed on 11 & 12 February 2021 at Oper Graz, Austria

This work is therefore still making its way in the world, and this Oper Graz production is acclaimed for its moving performances and highly effective stage setting. This DVD release follows on from a CD recording of the same production released on the Capriccio label (C5455); as a result of which Die Passagierin was declared ‘One of the most important and most brilliantly composed operas of the 20th century’ by Online Merker.

Director Nadja Loschky’s productions have ranged from Britten and Mozart to Verdi and Monteverdi in opera houses from Kassel and Heidelberg to Cologne and Zurich. She was resident director at Theater Bielefeld from the 2016–17 season, and is now artistic director.

"Bouquets to sopranos Nadja Stefanoff and Tetiana Miyus, respectively. The Graz Philharmonic acquit themselves superbly under the baton of Roland Kluttig" — Gramophone Magazine, 2022