One Night Together (Ilsa Gilbert)
Daniel Burwasser
About this work:
One Night Together is a chamber opera in four scenes, set in Eastern Europe before during and after the Holocaust. It is scored for six instruments and three singers. Raphael, a Jewish survivor of a concentration camp comes home to die, but first confronts his father Josef about issues of betrayal. Josef, a former professor, Partisan and now impoverished boatman, tries to effect a reconciliation and despairs of but hopes for redemption. Through flashbacks, we meet Anya, Josef’s sweetheart. A Christian woman, she was a professor and later a partisan who died fighting in the war. Through the lives of the three protagonists and the Mother, who died early and whom we don’t meet but learn about, the larger reality of the Holocaust itself is also explored.
Year composed: 2008
Duration: 01:30:40
Ensemble type: Opera/Theater:Chamber Opera, Two or More Singers
Instrumentation:
Instrumentation notes: Flute, Clarinet in Bb, Violin, Viola, 'Cello, Piano
Voice parts: Mezzo Soprano, Tenor, Baritone