The Passenger

I'm in the minority.  Probably in many ways.  I'm quite short.  That is irrelevant for this posting, however.  I'm also an opera lover.  Before you turn away, and go, ewww, I hate opera, a love of opera is not required for understanding my point today.  I attended a performance of the American debut of The Passenger, an opera by Mieczyslaw Weinberg about a German diplomat and his wife on their way to an assignment in Brazil.

All I had read in advance was that "a woman confronts her Holocaust past."  Okay.  I suspected I might have a somewhat emotional experience.  I did not expect what actually happened.  First of all, the passenger was neither the German diplomat nor his wife.  As all good theatrical performances should be -- at least in my opinion -- this opera's story line unfolds on multiple levels.

The audience learns that Walter and Liese love each other so much.  After fifteen years of wedded bliss, they are sailing away for this plum assignment in Brazil leaving Germany and all the nightmares of World War II behind.  While on deck, however, Liese sees a mysterious woman passenger and tells Walter she must return to their stateroom because she feels ill.  Liese bribes a porter to find out the identity of the mysterious passenger.

The brilliant staging of this particular production emphasized the link between Liese's two worlds.  As it turns out, Liese has never told Walter about her past as an SS guard at a concentration camp.  This production features the activity on ship occurring on the upper level of the stage, while the activity occurring at the concentration camp (from the past) on the lower level of the stage.  The passengers are all dressed in white, whereas all the players from the camp are dressed in the dark uniforms of the SS or the dark, dirty, dull concentration camp uniforms. 

Liese attempts to minimize her role at the camp to Walter, but of course, the audience knows she is not quite telling him everything.  Liese suspects the mystery passenger on the ship may be a survivor from the camp.  Not just any survivor, but Marta, whose will Liese tried to break in an effort to control the other prisoners.  And Liese was positive that Marta was dead.  She herself had sent Marta to the black wall from which no one had ever returned.

So that is the basic story of The Passenger.  Why was I so moved by this opera?  I am not sure I can express all the reasons, some of them are just so personal that getting the right words may be impossible.  That is what great art should be.  But here goes.

Between a husband and wife (or spouse and spouse) are there ever any areas that are kept hidden?  Has the past been completely revealed?  Has the sunshine been allowed into every corner of the relationship?  If it has, you know how painful that process can be.  Honesty about very difficult topics comes at a high price.  Survival of the relationship afterward may not happen.  If it does and intimacy abides, the couple will be stronger.  More often than not though, the secrets just stay hidden.

Listening to the prayers of the mothers, "please do not let my children be tortured," was almost torture in itself.  I am sobbing right now just at the thought of my precious grandchildren having to experience torture such as that of the Holocaust.  Or that my children's hearts should be broken in that way to endure havng their own children suffer.

Watching Marta's fiance, Tadeusz, refuse to play Liese's game inspired me to be a better person.  Even though it meant certain death, he gave Liese nothing with which she could hurt Marta.  When he was called before the Kommandant to play his violin, for the Final Concert Tadeusz did not play the Kommandant's favorite waltz and instead played Bach's "Chaconne"  In an environment of death and depravity Tadeusz brought nobility and culture..

The final scene of the opera perhaps was the most challenging.  We never know for certain if the passenger truly is Marta, if she lived or died.  After it was over I just sat in my seat.  I literally could not move because it was just that powerful.  (Caveat:  the music is not for sissies.  It is very modern and difficult.  However, it fits the subject matter.)

But what I also could not stop thinking about is whether the lesson from history has been learned.  Even in our own country people have become so callous to those who are not like them.  That is how it started in Germany.  The ones who did not fit the stereotypical norm were blamed for all the problems.  And then they were taken away.  With a plan to exterminate them. 

And let's not forget, it was not just the Jews.  It was the Polish, the homosexuals, the bisexuals, the drawfs, the gypsies, the Jehovah's Witnesses and people from Bible schools, people with disabilities, and others deemed enemies of the state.

What happened to loving our neighbor as ourselves?  Who is my neighbor?  There once was a parable answering that question by a man named Jesus.  Hmmm.  I think that parable involves a passenger of a different sort.  Go look it up.