2014
When Torah scholar Mendel Singer emigrates from Russia to America with his family, he leaves behind his youngest – handicapped – son. In the new world, which never becomes home, several bouts of misfortune rattle his faith, until a virtual miracle delivers him from doubt.
While in exile in Paris in 1939, the Austrian composer Erich Zeisl first encountered this story of common man Mendel Singer, told by Joseph Roth in his novel Job. Zeisl began work on a great opera based on the novel. The project accompanied him, with long interruptions, through his next stations of exile – New York and Los Angeles. By the time of his death in America in 1959, he had only composed the first half of the opera. The Bayerische Staatsoper and Munich’s Jakobsplatz Orchestra will perform the entirety of this music by Zeisl for the first time. The story of Mendel and his lost son Menuchim will continue to be told with new compositions by Jan Duszynski.
With Christa Ratzenböck, Chris Merritt, Wiard Witholt, Patrick Vogel, Maria Celeng, Rachael Wilson, Peter Lobert, Matthew Grills, Joshua Stewart, Rafal Pawnuk, Leonard Bernad
Composition: Erich Zeisl and Jan Duszynski, Musical direction: Daniel Grossmann, Stage direction: Miron Hakenbeck, Set design and costumes: Philine Rinnert, Video: Manuela Hartel, Choral conductor: Elisabeth Löffler, Conductor of children’s choir: Stellario Fagone
