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On Rosenstrasse
AND KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN June 21, 2012 at 7:30pm at Christ and St. Stephen's Church In late February of 1943, more than 1,700 Jewish men who were married to non-Jewish, Ayrian women were detained in the former Jewish Community Center building on Berlin’s Rosenstrasse. One by one, their wives and relatives stood in the cold across the street, trying to catch a glimpse of their loved ones. In a short time, their numbers multiplied until the casual gathering transformed into a full-fledged protest. The men detained inside the building said that listening to the women chant outside was like listening to the roar of the sea. These women, armed only with their combined voices and courageous determination, challenged the Nazis�?power and successfully secured the release of every man held inside, including those who had already been transferred to and were ultimately returned from Auschwitz. Max Kinberg and Terry Lawrence’s new chamber opera, On Rosenstrasse, tells this remarkable true story through the voices of eight women. The opera will be given its world premiere by Chelsea Opera in March 2013. But first, an unstaged work-in-progress reading on June 21, 2012 will enable the producers, composer and librettist to fine-tune the work. All contributions, be they $15 or $1,500, will enable this amazing new opera to take the next step towards its world premiere production. Funds will be used to pay the singers, actors, music director/pianist, director, stage manager, and audio/video recording engineers and rent the rehearsal and performance spaces to present the reading. The first act will be sung by professional singers from Chelsea Opera's roster; the second act will be read by a talented group of NYC actors. The reading features Ellen Andrews, Joan Barber, Suzanne Darrell, Abigail Fischer, Camille Gifford, Gayle Greene, Susan Holsonbake, Miriam Kushel, Kember Lattimer, Erika Person, Christine Reimer, Lisa Riegel, Cynthia Shaw, Abigail Treut and Terina Westmeyer, with Kelly Horsted, music director. LIBRETTIST TERRY LAWRENCE COMMENTS: "I first heard about the Rosenstrasse protest in a tiny capsule book review in the Detroit Free Press. It said 'a group of non-Jewish wives protested their husbands' arrest for a week in Berlin in 1943.' With no leaders and no manifesto, these Gentile women gathered just around the corner from Gestapo Headquarters to protest the arrests of their Jewish husbands. After a week during which they endured an air raid, warning shots and constant threats, they secured the release of 1,700+ men. The Nazis had already deported ninety-percent of Berlin's Jews to camps when these women literally stood up and refused to leave without their husbands. I had never ever heard of this. "Apparently, due to the appearance of Women's Studies in history departments in the 1990s, people started really looking into what women did during the war. There's an oral history called 'Frauen' in which German women are interviewed about everyday life in Nazi Germany. "The other main event that led to the protest's discovery was the fall of the Berlin Wall. All these historians could finally interview women in East Germany and look at Nazi records no one had seen since the war. Many of these women were still alive. "When I first learned about this story, I felt these women's voices needed to be heard. The story is big, emotional and powerful �?in other words, operatic." COMPOSER MAX KINBERG COMMENTS: "When I first read Terry Lawrence's play, Rosenstrasse, I was immediately taken with the story line. These brave German women stood up to the Nazi regime and fought for their Jewish husbands' lives: no small task given the unrivaled evil of the Nazi Regime. It is the universal theme of righteousness over evil that recurs throughout human history. Plus, many of the countless enactments in the arts and literature about the Holocaust have rarely, if ever, brought to light the defiance of those German people who stood up against their government and its crimes against humanity. This was a golden opportunity to 'musicalize' a core belief within me that evil will never win, and love trumps all adversity. In homage to these women, I wanted to bring to light these events which are indeed, based in historical fact. One last point is the choice of orchestration. My use of clarinet, violin, cello and piano is an homage to Oliver Messiaen’s Quartet For The End Of Time which used these same instruments, the only ones Messiaen could find when he wrote the piece in a concentration camp."
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Meet the Reading Cast Christ & St. Stephen's Church |
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About On Rosenstrasse
Meet the Composer
Max applied an was accepted to The University of Southern California’s Film Scoring Program where he studied film scoring with Jerry Goldsmith and others who worked in the industry. He stayed in Southern California where he now lives. He has since been scoring plays for many of the theaters in the greater Los Angeles area. Theaters he’s worked at include The Taper Forum, International City Theater, The Falcon Theater as well as being composer in residence at The Company Rep for 5 seasons where he scored many plays as well as being commissioned to collaborate on a musical version of “A Christmas Carol�?as well as a version of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale entitled “Lil�?Red�?for the children’s branch of the company. His latest work, On Rosenstrasse, is a collaboration with the writer, Terry Lawrence.
I am very pleased that Chelsea Opera has decided to premiere it in 2013.
EDUCATION Terry Lawrence (librettist/playwright)
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Max Kinberg (composer)
