Richmond Hill
December 04, 2008 10:51 PM
Simone Joseph
A Hebrew opera set during the Holocaust will likely run in Richmond Hill next year.
The founders of Opera York left last weekend on a trip to Israel to meet the author and the composer of the book/opera ‘And the Rat Laughed’.
“It is a story that needs to be told,” Philip Trow said. “More and more people don’t know about the Holocaust or aren’t sure about it or don’t understand the significance of it.”
Opera York founders Joan Sax and Mr. Trow are hoping to work out a contract to get the Canadian rights to the production.
“Basically, we have it all done. We are just going to cross the Ts and dot the Is,” Mr. Trow said.
An Opera York volunteer who has an Israeli background brought the opera to Opera York’s attention.
The opera is based on Nava Semel’s book ‘And the Rat Laughed’. The first performance of the opera was staged in April 2005 in Tel Aviv by the Israel Chamber Orchestra in co-production with the Cameri Theatre.
‘And the Rat Laughed’ is an original opera in Hebrew based on Ms Semel’s book, published three years ago. It is the story of a nameless five-year-old girl, as told to her granddaughter years later. The child’s parents entrust her to a family of farmers living in a remote Polish village. She is hidden in a dark potato cellar for more than a year, with little food, and only a rat for company and is repeatedly raped by the farmers’ son.
When the girl’s parents no longer send money, the farmer’s wife takes her to the village priest, urging him to kill her. But Father Stanislaw hides the Jewish child in his church and risks his life in healing her wounded body and broken soul.
Sixty years later, now a grandmother in Tel Aviv, she tries to recount her horrifying childhood to her teenage granddaughter who is preparing a school paper.
On their trip, Ms Sax and Mr. Trow will see a live production of the opera in Israel as well as speak to the story/opera’s composer and author. The opera will also be staged in South Africa, Poland and Hungary.
Opera York is hoping to stage the opera in the fall of 2009 during Holocaust education week in conjunction with Kristallnacht, otherwise known as The Night of the Broken Glass in Nazi Germany when Jewish shops were vandalized, and Jews were murdered, arrested and deported to concentration camps. The Nazis had launched an attack on the Jewish people and their property in Germany and German-controlled lands as a part of Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic policy.
The opera will be in Hebrew with English subtitles and will run at the new Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts. The United Jewish Appeal (an organization that aims to strengthen the quality of Jewish life around the world through philanthropic, volunteer and professional leadership), has agreed to fund the production, Mr. Trow said.
Mr. Trow and Ms Sax also had a meeting with Israel’s consul general in Toronto and the duo are expecting financial support from the Israeli government.
Mr. Trow and Ms Sax plan to bring the composer and author from Israel to Canada for the Canadian run in the hopes they can speak to university students and others who are interested.
“Everyone we have talked to is in love with the idea (of the opera),” Mr. Trow said.
The Markham and Vaughan library boards are interested in obtaining copies of the book and having speakers to talk about the topic, he said.
A Holocaust exhibit will also be on display for several weeks at the Richmond Hill theatre, he said.
Opera York is working out the number of shows it can commit to and is hoping to expand its selection of operas to include Chinese opera as well as operas from other parts of the world.
“We are looking for ways to connect more strongly with different cultural communities in York Region”.
Mr. Trow and Ms Sax as well as an Opera York volunteer left for Israel Nov. 30 and return Dec. 7.
Go to
www.ellasheriff.com/works-rat.asp for more information on ‘And the Rat Laughed’. Visit
www.operayork.com for more on Opera York.