The Passenger by the composer Mieczysław Weinberg is the opera based on the autobiographical book of the same name by the Polish writer Zofia Posmysz. The libretto was written by the Russian music critic Alexander Medvedev. The opera has been praised by critics for its stunning music, and at the same time criticized for the shortcomings of its storytelling.
The Passenger tells the story of Lisie, a middle-aged German woman en route to Brazil with her husband who got a new diplomatic assignment. On the ship, she notices a familiar face in the crowd. That leaves Lisie so shocked that she tells the husband about her past which she has not done previously. It turns out she served as an SS overseer in the Auschwitz concentration camp. The face she saw in the crowd was that of Marta – an inmate she tried to use in order to keep other prisoners in line. Lisie’s husband is shocked by the revelation which threatens his diplomatic career. The story continues with the former Nazi recalling the events from the past, culminating in Marta’s beloved – Tadeusz being beaten to death by the camp officers for refusing to play the commander’s favorite waltz. Lisie’s suspicions are validated as the mysterious passenger requests the orchestra to play the exact waltz Tadeusz refused to perform. The woman wants to confront the possible Marta, but she just leaves leaving Lisie in suspense.
The strongest point of The Passanger is undoubtedly its music. The tone color and the rhythm of the melodies follow and accentuate the narrative bringing to live the darkness of the concentration camp, as well as the happy, carefree life onboard the liner. The waltz music plays a crucial role in the arrangement. There are two waltzes in the opera. One is the waltz that Tadeusz didn’t play – rancid, morbid music loved by the concentration camp commander (Ross par.8). Another is Bach’s Chaconne in D Minor, which Tadeusz plays instead. Both waltzes foreshadow the doom for the characters – one gets Tadeusz killed and another leaves Lisie forever wondering who the mysterious passenger was (Ivry par.6). That act was seen as “throwing an apogee of German culture in the face of its Nazi betrayers” by the critics (Pountney par.10). The contrast between the two waltzes as well as the contract between the bouncing, rhythmic music of the ship and the haunting music of the concentration camp segments helps the opera to intensify the emotional response of the listeners. The music is backed up by incredible staging. Johan Engel uses the two-tier stage architecture to reinforce the parallels between the two timelines. The costumes and the scenery accentuate the strengths of the music by presenting an almost too real picture of both the Holocaust and the cruise ship.
However, the libretto of the novel is considerably weaker. The plot simplifies the original book considerably and suffers from an infusion of clumsy Soviet propaganda which was added in an attempt to get the opera into Bolshoi Theater back in 1968. That did not help as the Six-Day War raised the anti-Jew sentiments in the USSR leaders and prevented the opera from reaching the viewer (Jallon par.4). Now as the opera was finally staged, the propagandist Russian character and the removal of all but one Jewish characters from the narrative compromise the sense of personal tragedy and struggle that the story is supposed to convey. Overall the libretto was called “neither rational nor abstract and not substantial enough to carry all this weight” (Paulk par.10)
Despite the simplifications and the changes instigated by the historical context in which the opera was created, The Passenger is a powerful representation of the tragedy and horror of the Holocaust. The musical excellence of the piece and the brilliant play on the contrasts between the WWII realities and the life on the cruise ship make the opera truly stand out as a true masterpiece, praised even by Shostakovich himself (“A Holocaust Tale Unfolds on Two Levels” Par.3).
Works Cited
“A Holocaust Tale Unfolds on Two Levels.” National Public Radio. 2014. Web.
Ivry, Benjamin. “How Mieczysław Weinberg’s Music Survived Dictators: Russian Composer’s Work Outlasted The Soviet Union.” The Jewish Daily Forward. 2010. Web.
Jallon, Allan M. “Lincoln Center Presents an Opera Without Jews, Set in Auschwitz.” Tablet. 2014. Web.
Paulk, James L. “The Passenger by Mieczyslaw Vainberg: Houston Grand Opera Gives the US Premiere.” American Record Guide 77.3 (2014): 7. Print.
Pountney, David. “The Passenger’s Journey from Auschwitz to the Opera.” The Guardian. 2011. Web.
Ross, Alex. “Weinberg’s The Passenger: ‘Testament.’” The New Yorker. 2011. Web.