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CONSERVATORY STUDENT PRESENTS OPERA AND LECTURE SERIES
JANUARY 14, 2001-- Oberlin Conservatory senior Eric Einhorn will present a full-scale production of Viktor Ullmann's opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis (The Emperor of Atlantis). The performances will be held in the Wilder Hall Main Lounge on the Oberlin College Campus from January 31 - February 2, 2002. Pre-performance lectures will begin at 7:30 P.M., and the performances will begin at 8:00 P.M. All events are free of charge. This one act opera runs approximately one hour.
Written in 1943 during Ullmann's detention in Theresianstadt concentration camp, the opera was composed as a parable of the Jews during the Second World War. Although the composer and most of its original cast did not survive the Holocaust, the opera's manuscript was smuggled out of Theresianstadt and was finally performed for the first time in 1973.
This project is part of Einhorn's senior thesis for his independent major in Opera Stage Directing. Also majoring in voice, Einhorn will direct and produce this opera for his Oberlin College Winter Term project.
In conjunction with these performances, Einhorn has organized a pre-performance lecture series. Topics will range from the history of the Theresianstadt ghetto to the role of music in the Holocaust. The speakers will be Shulamit Magnus, Chair of the Oberlin Jewish Studies Department (Thursday evening); Eric Einhorn, the production's stage director (Friday evening); and Caroline Stoessinger, a New York-based conductor, pianist, and author of a forthcoming book on music in the Holocaust, who will speak about music and opera in Theresianstadt (Saturday evening).
Says Einhorn, " By performing Der Kaiser von Atlantis, we are giving life to those so brutally suppressed and, at the same time, disseminating crucial information on the topic of Entartete Musik (music suppressed by the Third Reich). Sublime art is often created under situations of extreme duress, and such is the case with this opera."
This production is sponsored by the Winter Term Committee, the Jewish Studies Department, the Opera Theater Department, the German Department, Hillel, Oberlin Musical Theater Association, the National Association of Temple Brotherhoods, and KESHER (the collegiate branch of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations). The project's faculty advisor is Jonathan Field.
The Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College, founded in 1865, is the nation's oldest continuously operating conservatory, and the only major music school in the country linked with a preeminent college of arts and sciences. The Conservatory offers majors in performance, composition, music education, music theory, electronic and computer music, jazz studies, music history, and a double major in piano performance and vocal accompanying. There are more than 400 public concerts on campus each year--most of them free.
Media Contact: Joanna Chang
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