Titus and Berenice love each other; under the watchful eye of Antiochus, the hopeless lover, they try yet refuse to understand each other. Taking up the “majestic sadness” of these alexandrines, among the greatest verses in the French language, Michael Jarrell amplifies the power of words, making them a vehicle for spaces and identities that, from Rome to Jerusalem, are unceasingly questioned.
When a young boy is put on the train in the direction of Auschwitz, his fate seems sealed. But when his mother pushes him off the train, he manages to escape and carve out a new life for himself. Inspired by the true story of Simon Gronowski who was pushed off the train from Mechelen to Auschwitz by his mother in Boortmeerbeek, Belgium, in 1943, Howard Moody has composed an opera bringing together professional musicians and amateur performers – both adults and children – in a unique theatrical experience.
Posthumously premiered in 1930, From the House of the Dead derives from Dostoevsky’s autobiographical 1862 novel that drew on his experience as a political prisoner in Siberia. Janáček focuses on Dostoevsky’s idea of the “spark of God” in every human being that has the potential to redeem even the most hardened criminal.
