New facts: Weinberg was tailed by the KGB as he composed The Passenger

New facts: Weinberg was tailed by the KGB as he composed The Passenger

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norman lebrecht

April 28, 2019

Ahead of the Israeli premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s concentration-camp opera, Haaretz critic Amir Mandel has been talking to the composer’s daughter about strange things that happened as he composed the opera in the mid-1960s.

Soviet policy at that period was a blend of anti-zionism and anti-semitism. Weinberg, his daughter says, found himself a subject of interest for the secret services. He was approached by mysterious strangers. He became nervous, unsettled. Somehow he completed The Passenger.

The opera was suppressed in the USSR. Weinberg, on his deathbed in 1996, declared that some day it would be seen around the world.

Read the full article here (in Hebrew).

 

Comments

  • My interview with Michelle Breedt who sang the role of Lisa in Bregenz. It’s not only about The Passenger, but she has a lot to say!

    https://basiaconfuoco.com/2016/11/14/michelle-breedt-interview-in-english/

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