Can you show Auschwitz on an opera stage? David Pountney, then director of the Bregenz Festival, answered the question with a resounding yes when he published “The Passenger” by Mieczysław Weinberg in 2010. It was the staged premiere of the work, which was completed in 1968, was never performed and was first realized in concert in Moscow in 2006. Pountney put Auschwitz on the stage, showed prisoners in striped suits, ovens, rails, SS men, he showed oppressive naturalism. The production was then shown in many places, including its premiere at the Teatro Real in Madrid.
Bavarian State Opera: Mieczysław Weinberg’s Auschwitz opera “The Passenger” – Culture
