"Il Ghetto" - Varsavia 1943
WHY SHOULD WE STAGE IT?
“The Holocaust is a legend”
14th December 2005
A statement by Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran
The opera will be performed at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa
on 22 and 23 November 2014.
“Il Ghetto (Varsavia 1943)” is a unique work, as it is the only opera that deals with the persecution of the Jews and in particular the “resistance” of Polish Jews in Warsaw in 1943.
It was awarded a prize by H. von Karajan in 1970, and it is an opera of considerable artistic value.
ITS MUSICAL LANGUAGE
It can be considered as an example of “late verismo”. After having been abandoned for decades, while Dodecaphony and other extremely modern experimentations prevailed, this style is being thoroughly re-evaluated today; as a matter of fact, operas by late verismo composers such as Cilea and Giordano among others are being performed more and more often.
However personal and modern this language may be, it is also straightforward and easily understood by the audience in such a way as to convey the message of this opera directly to people’s hearts.
With its vehemence and passionate character, this music penetrates the souls of the characters and their torments; it scrutinizes the love that unites them and their willingness to rebel against barbarity, which is even stronger than their own instinct of survival.
THE LIBRETTO
Unlike many traditional operas, this one is of considerable literary value: anguish, love and anger are conveyed through effective and powerful language - a long way from rhetorical emphasis - and enhanced by its extraordinarily “dramatic spontaneity”.
The modernity of the opera together with its extremely topical civil message, will surely stir the interest of opera houses, music critics, public opinion and the media.
In 1983, Chief Rabbi Dott. Elio Toaff was able to hear the Opera played on the piano by the Composer himself. He was delighted with the work and pointed it out to the Mayor of Rome Ugo Vetere recommending the staging of it at the Opera House in Rome. The Opera House did not have time to view the score.
L'Autore del libretto Dino Borlone e il M.° Colombini
(entrambi deceduti nel 1991)
Bozzetto di scena realizzato dall'Autore Dino Borlone
Presentazione dell'Opera a Sua Santità Giovanni Paolo II
Il M.° Colombini con il dott. Elio Toaff, Rabbino capo di Roma, dopo l'audizione dell'opera al pianoforte a casa dell'Autore
