Opera about Mordechai Gebirtig

[Daniel Wikler <diwikler...>]

The Memory Game, a new opera about Mordechai Gebirtig, Yiddish poet and
composer, premiered May 30 at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Joel
Hoffman, the composer, had played in the Trio Gebirtig in Florence some
years earlier, which resulted in a CD of Gebirtig's songs (on the Amiata
label, apparently unavailable at present). This opera, with a libretto
by Henk Romijn Meijer, presents Gebirtig, his family, and a few
associates (including Molly Picon) in a stylized retelling of their
experience in the Holocaust. Gebirtig was shot on the street in Krakow
during a roundup and the rest of his family were murdered in Belzec.

The opera incorporates several Gebirtig songs, notably the very
beautiful Reisele, but it is not a revue. The Memory Game is an opera in
the Janacek mode, with no arias or choruses to interrupt the narrative.
Hoffman weaves the Gebirtig songs into the stream of his music,
unpunctuated except for language: the singers switch from English to
Yiddish. All the songs but one use both Gebirtig's lyrics and his music;
for the exception, Hoffman wrote music to accompany a poem by Gebirtig.
That poem can be found on a commemorative plaque on the building in
Krakow in which Gebirtig lived.

Hoffman and Meijer were well served by the cast and small orchestra,
mostly students at the conservatory. Luke Grooms was outstanding as
Gebirtig. The music was enhanced by guest artist Alex Fedoriouk, playing
on a piano-size cimbalom.   

Dan Wikler

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