Program Notes

THE CANTATA SINGERS & ENSEMBLE
David Hoose, Music Director
with members of PALS Children’s Chorus
Johanna Hill Simpson, Conductor
and Spectrum Singers
John W. Ehrlich, Music Director
Friday, January 18, at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, January 20 at 3:00 p.m.
Jordan Hall
Pre-concert speaker, Lior Navok
PROGRAM
Lior Navok
(b. 1970)
And the Trains Kept Coming…
Slavery Documents 3
World Premiere, commissioned by the Cantata Singers
Intermission
Kurt Weill
Die Propheten, A Twentieth-Century Bible Play
from Der Weg der Verheissung
First Boston performance
This performance is funded in part by The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc., 7 East 20th Street, New York, NY 10003
And the Trains Kept Coming… was commissioned with support from the ArgosyFoundation Contemporary Music Fund
and funded in part by a grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts and the Creative Connections program of
Meet the Composer, Inc., and with additional support from the Argosy Foundation, the six New England state arts agencies
and the National Endowment for the Arts.
43
PROGRAM NOTE
And the Trains Kept Coming…
Slavery Documents 3
by Lior Navok
T
he horrifying stories and testimonies from
prisoners in the Nazi death camps became
known only gradually, reported to the allies
by survivors, intelligence agencies, and the
common people who lived close to the camps. It
is hard to believe that the world, even as it was
immersed in the problems of the war, could not
grasp the scale of tragedy that was taking place
at the death camps and, when it did—did not do
much.
Was there anything the Allies could do? It is true
that the British people had to overcome the blitz
and maintain the existence of their country,
while the Americans, after being attacked in
Pearl Harbor, found themselves fighting on
several fronts. When exhausted armies try to
fight for the existence of their countries, when
food is unavailable and blood is spilled in every
corner of major European cities—could anyone
have the means and will to stop the mass
murder of six million Jews, one-half million
Gypsies, at least 250,000 mentally or physically
disabled persons, and more than three million
Soviet prisoners-of-war?
Did the allies know what was going on in the
camps? The answer is—Yes. Yet, there were
several stages along the way. At first, only a few
intelligence reports mentioned the murder in
East Europe. Then, testimonies from people who
were lucky to escape the Nazi inferno arrived,
but these were partly dismissed as exaggerated
and delusional. There was also a phase of denial:
matching testimonies pointed out that the goals
publicly stated by the Nazi regime—namely, the
extermination of all Jewish people—were in
operative stages, yet only few people could
comprehend the figures, the horrors and the
inhumanity. The denial at the early stages of the
war was shared even by the Jewish communities
in the United Kingdom, the United States, and
those in the yet-to-be-born state of Israel.
44
At the beginning of the war, Allied armies indeed
were unable to reach East Europe. But at a later
stage, from August 1944, airplanes frequently
passed over near the death camps, which were
continually running at full capacity. When
thousands of bombs fell over Germany, when
hundreds of pleading letters and telegrams were
piled at the war departments of the British and
US armies, why did no one give the order to
bomb the tracks to Auschwitz and other camps,
not to mention the gas chambers and
crematoria? Such could have prevented the
deaths of thousands. Reports from survivors
even mention the strong wish to be bombed by
the Allies’ airplanes, as this would have given
them more hope than the certain death waiting
at the gas chamber. Why was nothing done?
With that question in mind, I started researching
various archives, tracing authentic letters,
memos, telegraphs, protocols and other means of
correspondence between the Allies. Most of
them were previously marked as “secret” or
“confidential.” The findings were shocking. The
slow wheels of bureaucracy, the careless
diplomats and decision makers, the officers who
sat in their remote offices and saw victims and
refugees as numbers on the page, answering in a
cold bureaucratic manner to matters of life and
death had all contributed to inaction. In some
cases, especially in the British Colonial Office
that dealt with refugees, officers at all ranks had
halted, delayed and diverted refugees from
entering the country and, consequently,
sentenced many of them to death. Many
emotional statements by the Allied high
command expressed support for the refugees, but
the actions of subordinates seldom reflected that
support.
These bureaucratic, robotically written
documents are naturally very cold and selfishly
efficient. Another type of “efficiency,” though
more vicious and hair-raising, is the Nazi
bureaucratic correspondence: train schedules,
stating origin, destination, time and number of
“passengers.” On their return, the trains traveled
empty; all was done according to schedule. For
me, trains have always symbolized freedom—
discovery of new landscapes, motion, and
optimism. But here, the trains are trains of
horror, where eighty to one hundred people
were shoved into a cattle car with no water or
food, traveling for days, sometimes weeks while
standing on dead bodies en route to an
“unknown destination.”
And yet, with all this cold correspondence—
the real suffering is that of the individuals. I
researched and found hundreds of testimonies,
from people who were trapped in the trains,
people who escaped the camps, adults who told
their childhood stories, people who watched the
Allies’ airplanes fly over Auschwitz, and even a
woman who was already inside the gas chamber
and miraculously released. I found heart-rending
letters and farewell notes that were written and
concealed in the cracks of the barracks by
prisoners on their last day on earth. This is the
personal side to vicious action and official
inaction—it is completely contrary to the dry,
mechanical bureaucratic correspondences.
Thus, And the Trains Kept Coming…juxtaposes
Lior Navok
Composer Lior Navok has
earned his place as one of the
most innovative, fresh, and
communicative composers of
the younger generation. His
music, emerging from
reflections on nature and
humankind, bridges between
the realistic and the
mysterious, the conscious and
the unconscious.
Navok’s music has been performed by the Radio
Philharmonie Hannover NDR, Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Modern
Orchestra Project, The Tel Aviv Soloists, The
Borromeo String Quartet, Collage New Music,
The Alcan String Quartet, Mexico City String
Quartet, Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, Third-Rail
Saxophone Quartet, The Silver-Garburg Piano
Duo, Southern Cross Soloists, Akanthus
Ensemble Berlin, Citywinds, Percadu, Ticom
Ensemble, Florestan Recital Project, MIT Wind
Ensemble, and Musica Nova.
Among the awards Navok has received are the
Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Award, Prime
these heart-breaking documents with the cold
and calculated ones, slowly unveiling the
tragedy. Following the nature of each document,
the work is structured as a series of un-staged
scenes, which change quite rapidly; each
contributes another perspective to the broad
picture. Unlike an opera, in which each singer
usually portrays one character, the vocal soloists,
narrators and choir portray multiple characters,
contradicting each other. The distinction between
good and bad becomes blurry—a feeling that
many survivors mentioned. The choir for
example, portrays the voice of the people, acting
as a Greek chorus, or as a catalyst that pushes
the plot forward. The work as a whole is in one
movement and proceeds in chronological order
according to the historical developments.
While And the Trains Kept Coming…focuses on the
Holocaust and its graveness, it reflects as well the
ability of humans to ignore the suffering of
another nation or individual. This of course still
takes place today, ranging from the genocide in
Darfur, to events in the Middle East, to the
homeless lying on the curb next to the local
drugstore.
Minister Award, Massachusetts Cultural Council,
and America-Israel Cultural Foundation.
Fellowships and residencies include the
Tanglewood Music Center, Cité Internationale
des Arts, Aspen Music Festival, and the
MacDowell Colony. Recent commissions include
the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Fromm
Music Foundation, and the Jerome Foundation.
Last season, Mr. Navok had premieres of Hope
Cycles (commissioned for the Borromeo String
Quartet), Arabesque (commissioned for the Tel
Aviv Baroque Trio), Like a Whirling Sand-Clock for
Chen Halevi (clarinet) and the Israel
Contemporary Players, Spring Calls for soprano
and ensemble (commissioned for Close
Encounters with Music), and The Old Photo Box—a
sixty-minute cycle of piano miniatures dedicated
to twenty outstanding pianists. Lior Navok has
released two highly acclaimed CDs—Hidden
Reflections and Meditations Over Shore. He received
his DMA and MM from the New England
Conservatory where he studied composition with
John Harbison, and a double bachelor’s degree
from the Rubin Academy of Music, Jerusalem,
where he studied with Yinam Leef.
45
PROGRAM NOTE
Kurt Weill: Die Propheten
The Road to The Eternal Road
by Guy Stern
The road to The Eternal Road, of which “Die
Propheten” is a part, started with a concept or
rather with a visionary idea. Meyer Weisgal, then
a fledgling producer—later to become the highly
respected Director of Israel’s Weizmann
Institute—sought to deliver a powerful dramatic
counterstatement to the Nazi’s vilification of the
Old Testament and the Jews. He would assemble
the leading talents of the world of music and the
theater, raise the necessary funds—he would
ultimately break all previous records for
Broadway shows—and let the assembled
geniuses set out on their individual and
collaborative artistic efforts.
Weill, Werfel and Reinhardt. Photo by Rohn.13
As Weisgal ruefully recalls in his autobiography,
he did not bargain for assuming the role of
Moses, if not for forty years, then certainly for
four years as the production snailed its way
towards its opening. It started innocuously
enough with Weisgal’s Pan Am flight in the
winter of 1933 to Paris and a hurried
conversation with Max Reinhardt, then in
rehearsal for one of his spectacular stagings of
the Merchant of Venice. He persuaded the famed
Austrian theater director, then at the height of
46
his fame as the creator of the Salzburg Festival
and of spectacular and original theater
productions, to act as majordomo of the
enterprise. He in turn engaged Kurt Weill, at age
33 already a legend as the composer of The
Threepenny Opera, and Franz Werfel, best-selling
novelist in Europe and the United States and
equally successful as a dramatist.
The first task fell to Werfel. What he showed his
collaborators at a first planning meeting at
Reinhardt’s princely castle of Leopoldskron near
Vienna, was a biblical drama with pointedly
contemporary implications. A Jewish
community, time and place unspecified, is
huddled in the local synagogue, in fear of a
threatened pogrom. Arguments ensue between a
faithful adherent of Judaism and an apostate,
between believers in God’s covenant with Israel
and doubters and skeptics. But the commanding
voice of the Rabbi, reminding his community of
similar crises in Biblical and post-Biblical times,
quiets the controversies and banishes despair.
Each time he recalls the venerable Jewish
tradition the recited episode, the story of Ruth or
of King David, for example, takes shape on a
different level of the theater. In all, five plateaus
were needed to accommodate all actions: earthly,
biblical and celestial. The play ends on a note of
muted optimism: no pogrom takes place, but the
community, expulsed from its town, continues
its march on Israel’s “eternal road.”
The inevitable and sporadically recurring clashes
between three highly gifted and individualistic
artists set in. Werfel fretted that his drama would
be weighed down with all that music, Weill
complained to Lotte Lenya of Werfel’s antimusical stance, Reinhardt embittered both with
his demand for cuts. There were squabbles over
contractual matters and real strife between Weill
and one of Reinhardt’s chief assistants who tried
(for reasons not entirely professional) to
insinuate an actress into the (minor) role of
Miriam against Weill’s championing of his past
and future wife, Lotte Lenya. Weill prevailed .
The New York Times. Bel Geddes also ripped out
rows of the best (and most expensive) orchestra
seats and invaded the orchestra pit. The intrusion
gave rise to a needed, then entirely new, now
commonplace invention: the blending of live
performance with canned music. And rehearsals
had to take place at another theater, causing
Weisgal to groan to Bel Geddes that even a
genius, please forgive, might show a bit of
restraint. Bel Geddes responded in a fit of
apoplexy.
New York was gripped by the spirit, the mission,
and the enormousness of the enterprise. Beyond
periodic progress reports in the newspapers,
Manhattan’s cultural and political leaders, and
media personalities prepared theatergoers for the
opening. As early as 1935 a star-studded banquet
in honor of Max Reinhardt at the WaldorfAstoria—its proceedings recently rediscovered in
the form of metal recordings by Professor
Sketch by Harry Horner for the set of The Eternal Road.14
All the principals rejoined forces in New York—
as exiles from Nazi Germany or soon-to-be-exiles
after Hitler’s annexation of Austria in 1938. One
of Reinhardt’s assistant stage designers, Oskar
Strand, died soon after his arrival, necessitating
the recruiting of Norman Bel Geddes, one of the
most innovative and imaginative stage designers
of our times. But beyond the triumph of this
recruitment it brought about—to Weisgal’s
chagrin—the “marriage” of two gigantomaniacs,
Reinhardt and Bel Geddes. The latter started
rebuilding the entire Manhattan Opera House,
no longer a theater today, striking bedrock and
groundwater at one time. “Like Moses, Bel
Geddes has struck water out of rock,” quipped
The final march out of the synagogue,
conceived as the finale for Act IV.15
1938 The Eternal Road premieres
Music and Theatre
Carl Orff,
Carmina Burana
Richard Rodgers,
Babes in Arms
Literature and Film
John Steinbeck,
Of Mice and Men
Jean-Paul Sartre,
La Nausée
Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)
Science and Society
Insulin used to
control diabetes
Golden Gate Bridge opens
Amelia Earhart is
lost on Pacific flight
Disaster of dirigible
“Hindenburg” at
Lakehurst, NJ
Politics
Roosevelt signs
US Neutrality Act
Italy withdraws from
League of Nations
Royal Commission
on Palestine recommends
the establishment of
Arab and Jewish states.
47
performances, the acting by a
cast of hundreds, the dances
blended meticulously. The
“Dance Around the Golden
Calf” would make it into
newsreels of the following
weeks. Kurt Weill’s music, in its
often startling varieties,
especially in its large, cohesive
sections, “sends shudders of
eternity down one’s spine,” to
quote one of the opening-night
critics.
The music drama, during the
short time it was on the boards,
gained further admirers.
Musicologists praised it in their
journals, the New York
Archbishop, impressed,
This excerpt from Weill’s final rehearsal score for Der Veg der Verheissung, shows a sample
permitted his flock to attend
of the Rabbi’s recitative from Act I.The English translation for The Eternal Road has been
performances during Lent. The
inserted in an unknown hand.
show was well attended,
though
not
always
to capacity—and went
Leonard Fiedler of Frankfurt University—
bankrupt less than half a year after its opening.
featured ringing endorsements by Mayor Fiorello
La Guardia, Bernard Deutsch, President of the
It has never been revived in its entirety. Its
Board of Aldermen, Rabbi Steven S. Wise,
awesome grandeur and grandiosity have
renowned attorney Louis Nizer, the radio
discouraged even enterprising theaters and
personality A.L. Alexander, the theater producer
directors.
Christopher L. Moreley, and the actresses Jean
Muir and Anita Louise. Max Reinhardt himself
introduced his projected production. But the
climax came when Albert Einstein mounted
the rostrum.
16
Exalting the moral mission of the Bible and the
aesthetic beauty of the text and warning against
the threats posed by its present-day, politically
motivated denigrators, he praised the creative
minds behind The Eternal Road, “this great work.”
He enjoined “all true friends of culture” to unite
behind the effort to bring it to life. But the road
to opening night still faced a steep climb. Funds
ran out in December 1935; the principals
dispersed till Weisgal, one month later, had
marginally repleted the coffers. And then the
preparatory work—including further fund
raising—caused an additional major delay till
January 1937.
Opening night was a triumph. The audience,
including the guest of honor, the mother of
President Roosevelt, stayed gripped by a
performance that lasted, despite all of
Reinhardt’s cuts, way past midnight. The choral
48
Samuel Goldenberg as Moses in the 1937 production of
The Eternal Road.17
Burns Mantle’s review of
The Eternal Road from
the New York Daily
News, 8 January 1937.18
49
AND THE TRAINS KEPT COMING…
1.
Come to me, you, the contented citizens of the world, you who live in a country where only happiness,
joy and pleasure may dwell.
Come to me, you whose country is surrounded by modern Chinese Walls, so that the hooves of the cruel demon
may not reach you.
Arise, my friends, leave the warm and tranquil palaces in which you have found shelter, gather your courage and
accompany me in my wanderings throughout the continent of Europe, where Satan has proclaimed his rule.
2.
5. Februar, Zug-Nr. PJ 107 verlässt Bialystok um 9 Uhr mit
zweitausend Reisenden. Ankunft in Auschwitz am nächsten Tag um
7:57 Uhr. Anzahl der Rückreisenden: Keine.
7. Februar, Zug-Nr. PJ 117 verlässt Bialystok um 9 Uhr mit
zweitausend Reisenden. Ankunft in Treblinka am nächsten Tag um
12:10 Uhr.
9. Februar, Zug-Nr. PJ 127 verlässt Bialystok um 9 Uhr mit
zweitausend Reisenden. Ankunft in Treblinka am nächsten Tag um
12:10 Uhr.
9. Februar, Zug-Nr. LP 128 verlässt Treblinka um 9:28 Uhr. Ankunft in
Bialystok am nächsten Tag um 1:30 Uhr. Anzahl der Reisenden:
Keine.
10. Februar, Zug-Nr. PJ 129 verlässt Bialystok um 9 Uhr mit
zweitausend Reisenden in Richtung Treblinka.
10. Februar, Zug-Nr. LP 130 verlässt Treblinka um 9 Uhr in Richtung
Bialystok. Anzahl der Reisenden: Keine.
11. Februar, Zug-Nr. PJ 131, zweitausend Reisende nach Treblinka.
11. Februar, Zug-Nr. LP 132 verlässt Treblinka um 9:28 Uhr in
Richtung Bialystok. Anzahl der Reisenden: Keine.
12. Februar, Zug-Nr. PJ 133, zweitausend Reisende. Ankunft in
Treblinka: 12:10 Uhr.
13. Februar, Zug-Nr. PJ 136 verlässt Bialystok um 9 Uhr mit
zweitausend Reisenden in Richtung Treblinka.
13. Februar, Zug-Nr. LP 137, Anzahl der Reisenden: Keine.
5th February, train number PJ 107 carrying two thousand
passengers, departing Bialystok at 9:00AM arriving to Auschwitz
at 7:57AM the next day, returning empty.
7th February, train number PJ 117 carrying two thousand
passengers, departing Bialystok at 9:00AM arriving to Treblinka
at 12:10AM the next day.
9th February, train number PJ 127 carrying two thousand
passengers, departing Bialystok at 9:00AM arriving to Treblinka
at 12:10AM.
9th February, train number LP 128 returning empty, departing
Treblinka at 9:28PM arriving to Bialystok at 1:30AM the next
day.
10th February, train number PJ 129, two thousand passengers,
departing Bialystok at 9:00AM en route Treblinka.
10th February, train number LP 130 returning empty, departing
Treblinka at 9:28PM en route Bialystok.
11th February, train number PJ 131, two thousand passengers, en
route Treblinka.
11th February, train number LP 132 returning empty, departing
Treblinka at 9:28PM en route Bialystok.
12th February, train number PJ 133, two thousand passengers,
arriving to Treblinka at 12:10AM.
13th February, train number PJ 136, two thousand passengers,
departing Bialystok at 9:00AM en route Treblinka.
13th February, train number LP 137 returning empty.
3.
To where are we heading?
Unknown destination.
—We are locked in a cattle car—
Eighty people—trapped.
—We’ve run out of water—
And the way has no end.
—Bodies lie among us
and cannot be removed.
The railroads, were but the means to an end.
“The railroads were in fact the end.”
The railroads were the means to death.
We were promised freedom.
4.
The train stops at a little station. Armed S.S. men are seated between the tracks. It is no use dreaming of escape.
The train moves off. We are hungry and cold. Men lie about drowsy, indifferent.The night and another day pass.The
train moves off. We are hungry and cold. Men lie about drowsy, indifferent.The night and another day pass. On the
second night the train stops at a station for the whole night. On our right we hear the roar of the soviet guns.
It is too late for us.
50
As we were being removed from the train our first view was SS—men with guns and guard dogs.
The SS guards told us to leave the little belongings we had.
As I stood in line a stranger tapped me on the shoulders from behind and said:
“Little Boy, stand on your feet! stand on your toes when you come up to the German SS. Make yourself taller!”
I stretched and strained, somehow knowing that my life depended upon the stranger’s advice.
He was selected to work in a road gang while his parents and younger brother were taken to the gas chambers.
5.
My darling,
On this, the last night of my life, I bid you farewell. Our days of happiness were short-lived, but beautiful. At this
moment I am remembering our love, from its beautiful beginning until its cruel end.You were the love of my life, and I
would willingly have sacrificed everything to save you. And our innocent little Otto—why has it been decreed that this
rough, ruthless hand should put and end to his short life?
6.
‘Bezüglich der Judenfrage ist der Führer entschlossen,
reinen Tisch zu machen. Er hat den Juden prophezeit,
daß, wenn sie noch einmai einen Weltkrieg herbeiführen würden, sie dabei ihre Vernichtung erleben
würden. Das ist keine Phrase gewesen. Der Weltkrieg
ist da, die Vernichtung des Judentums muß die
notwendige Folge sein.
Referring to the Jewish Question, the Führer is determined to clear the table. He prophesied to the Jews
that if they brought about another world war, they
would experience their own annihilation in doing so.
That was no empty talk.The world war is here.The
annihilation of Jewry must be the necessary consequence.
7.
A theatre of horrors, a mob stage,
Presenting a caste of unique actors
an innumerable variety of
characters and faces,
having its own stage-setters and
staff technicians, ushers, mess service personnel,
quartermasters, nurses, doctors,
auxiliary services, watchmen,
transport guards and all the people around,
all obeying the waving of a
magic wand.
8.
Receiving alarming reports stating that in the Führer’s Headquarters, a plan has been discussed, and is under consideration, according to which all Jews in countries occupied or controlled by Germany numbering three and a half to four
millions should, after deportation and concentration in the East, be at one blow exterminated, in order to resolve once
and for all the Jewish question in Europe. Action is reported to be planned for the autumn. Ways of execution are still
being discussed including the use of prussic acid. Our informant is reported to have close connections with the highest
German authorities, and his reports are generally reliable. Please inform and consult New York.
. . . A plan. . .
9.
The report has earmarks of war rumor inspired by fear and what is commonly understood to be the actually miserable condition of these refugees who face decimation as result of physical maltreatment, persecution and scarcely
endurable privations, malnutrition and disease.
. . . listen. . .
51
10.
As for your letter. . . I will tell you frankly that we are not inclined to accept all of its contents verbatim. Just a one
should. . . learn from experience sometimes to accept. . . unimaginable action as indisputable facts, so should one learn
from history to. . . distinguish between reality—however harsh it may be—and imagination aggravated by justified fear.
A theatre of horrors
A mob stage
Blind Eye to Murder
11.
Der Transportzug 35
verlässt mit 1000 Juden Bourget-Drancy in Richtung Auschwitz.
Der Transportzug 36]
verlässt mit 1000 Juden Bourget-Drancy in Richtung Auschwitz.
Der Transportzug 37
verlässt mit 1000 Juden Bourget-Drancy in Richtung Auschwitz.
Der Transportzug SA 225
verlässt mit 1100 Juden Rom in Richtung Auschwitz.
Der Transportzug SA 227
verlässt mit 1200 Juden Rom in Richtung Auschwitz.
Der Transportzug DA 13
verlässt mit 600 Juden Berlin in Richtung Auschwitz.
Der Transportzug DA 15
verlässt mit 800] Juden Berlin in Richtung Auschwitz.
Der Transportzug PJ 163
verlässt 600 Juden Grodno in Richtung Treblinka.
Der Transportzug 110
verlässt mit 700 Juden Zamo´sć in Richtung Auschwitz.
Der Transportzug DA 17
verlässt mit 700 Juden Berlin in Richtung Auschwitz.
Transport train 35
departing Bourget-Drancy en route Auschwitz carrying thousand Jews.
Transport train 36
departing Bourget-Drancy en route Auschwitz carrying thousand Jews.
Transport train 37
departing Bourget-Drancy en route Auschwitz carrying thousand Jews.
Transport train SA 225
departing Rome en route Auschwitz carrying 1100 Jews.
Transport train SA 227
departing Rome en route Auschwitz carrying 1200 Jews.
Transport train DA 13
departing Berlin en route Auschwitz carrying 600 Jews.
Transport train DA 15
departing Berlin en route Auschwitz carrying 800 Jews.
Transport train PJ 163
departing Grodno en route Treblinka carrying 600 Jews.
Transport train 110
departing Zamość en route Auschwitz carrying 700 Jews.
Transport train DA 17
departing Berlin en route Auschwitz carrying 700 Jews.
Hear us,
We are all dying
Hear us.
12.
I can not relate to all I saw: it is beyond the power of any human being to describe all that I witnessed personally.
Shortly after I had crossed the Polish border I got in touch with a number of diplomatic representatives of Great
Britain and told them what I had witnessed.They listened to me politely, showed a great deal of sympathy, but gave me
to understand that in view of my horrifying experience it was my overwrought imagination that was painting macabre
pictures, and all that I related could be only partially true…
. . .The Evidence . . .
. . .The Facts. . .
13.
You wanted a survey of the position of the Jews in Europe.You wanted facts and figures. Have I stated the facts? some
of them, but very few.Think of the facts behind the facts, of the rivers of tears and the streams of blood and the naked
bodies, the bleeding feet and the crying children. . .Think of the stench and the filth; think of the biting cold and the
gnawing hunger, the black despair in millions of hearts.
Try to think of the last thoughts of the three Jews who were paraded through a Polish town and hanged for having
tried to obtain some food from non-Jews. Feel the feelings of the Jewish mother in Paris who threw her six children,
and then herself out of the window when the police came to take her away to a camp and then to Poland.
52
Think of the facts behind the facts, of the rivers of tears and the streams of blood and the naked bodies, the bleeding
feet and the crying children. . .
Have I stated the facts?
I have written four thousand words and I have said nothing
Use your imagination, friend.
14.
Germany no longer persecutes the Jews. It is systematically exterminating them.The new racist policy was revealed to
me by a British officer who escaped the hell of the Himmler Ghetto. For several months now, the Third Reich has been
brutally destroying the Jewish population by two effective means: starvation and mass execution.
We are at the presence of a crime without a name.
15.
Kochana Matu?,
Teraz jesten sam.
Pan tak ka?e I tak musi by?.
Jak mozes? to ratuj.
Ja I ty zostali?my ko?kami
Twój s?odki Natu?
Dear Mother,
I am all alone now.
The lord says so, so it must be.
If you can, save me.
You and I become dead objects (wooden pegs,) all alone
Your sweet Natus.
We are at the presence of a crime without a name.
Save them!
In God’s name—save them!
16.
In Gods name we appeal do maximum snatch innocent men women children from Nazi Shambles. [sic]
Make supreme effort. Open wide gates.
. . . Open wide gates. . .
17.
Dear Namir,
You will remember that on the 1st of December you raised the question of the possible release of the 793 Jewish
refugees who reached Palestine in the Steam Ship Darien.
The secretary of State has now fully considered the matter. He is not, however, prepared to release of these illegal
immigrants who, in accordance with the declared policy, will remain in detention until it proves possible to move them
to Mauritius or elsewhere.
19.
This time the Colonial Office is really carrying too far its policy. American public opinion would protest against our
inhumanity: “You won’t help these people yourselves; and now you won’t let us help them.” In the spirit though not in
the letter, American public opinion would be right. Such action on our part would savour of real malice against the
refugees, more worthy of our enemies than of us.
18.
Es ist seltsam, dass all die Staaten, die sich öffentlich f?r
die Juden einsetzen, sich ständig weigern, die Juden bei
sich aufzunehmen. Sie behaupten, sie seien
Genies der Wirtschaft, des Staates, der Philosophie, der
Poesie. . . doch wenn wir ihnen diese Genies ?bergeben
wollen, dann machen sie ihre Grenzen zu: ‚Nein, nein!
Wir wollen sie nicht!’ Es ist doch einzigartig in der
Weltgeschichte, dass man wahre Genies ablehnt.”
It is strange that all those states, which intervene for the
Jews in their public opinion, constantly refuse to accept
the Jews from us.They say they are great
pioneers of culture, geniuses of economy, geniuses of
statesmanship, geniuses of philosophy and poetry, but
when we want to entrust these geniuses to them, then
they close their borders: “No, no! We do not want
them!” I think this is a unique example in the world’s
history, to refuse geniuses.
53
20.
If the will be strong enough and the heart be stout enough, then efforts to rescue will be made and will succeed. If we
remain feeble and complacent, then death alone will have its way. Let no possible sanctuary be closed, whether in
America or elsewhere. Let each door of refuge be opened and kept open.This is the Christian way.
21.
With the arrest and transport to Poland of tens of thousands of Jews, a new and difficult problem has been created for
the Swiss authorities. Several hundred “illegal” refuges have crossed the frontier.
While until now—with very few exceptions—all refugees had been “legalised” so that they would remain here—
authorities in Berne now decided to stop this influx and to send back a number of those who during the last weeks
had arrived here.You can easily imagine what it meant for these unfortunate people.They were not actually handed
over to the Gestapo, but were led to the frontier and forced to cross it. Nobody knows what then happened to them.
22.
They were arrested by a German military detachment and brought to a place where thousands of Jews and Poles
were being concentrated, civilians and military alike.They were four days and four nights on the way, without being
given any bread to eat or water to drink. Men who had no strength left in them to move their legs, were shot. I have
seen with my own eyes, how a young Polish pilot approached an officer and told him that he was unable to go on.The
officer did not even bother to reply; he drew his revolver and shot him right away.
23.
The United Nations are fighting to make a world in which tyranny and aggression can not exist; a world based upon
freedom, equality and justice; a world in which all persons regarding of race, color or creed may live in peace, honor and
dignity.
We call upon the free peoples of Europe and Asia temporarily to open their frontiers to all victims of oppression. We
shall find havens of refuge for them, and we shall find them means for their maintenance until the tyrant is driven from
their homelands and they may return.
Freedom, equality and justice
Peace, honor and dignity
24.
The general policy has been not to admit during the war additional refugees unless in some quite rare and exceptional
cases it can be shown that the admission of the refugee will be directly advantageous to our war effort. Any departure
from this rigid policy is liable to fresh claims and additional pressure of persons who are in danger or distress, and I am
convinced that it would not be right to make any general departure from the principle.
25.
If men with such philosophy continue in control, we may as well take down that plaque from the statue of liberty and
blackout “the lamp beside the golden door.”
26.
This is the order of events in Auschwitz to which, 12,000 Jewish souls—men, women, children, the old, the sick and the
healthy—are being taken daily to be choked, to be burned and to be manure to the fields. And you, brother Jews! And
you, ministers of states in all countries? How can you keep quiet at this murder? In the name of the blood of the millions and the tears of millions, we beg you, we plead with you, we claim and demand of you: do something immediately!
27.
How well are you sleeping?
54
28.
Ktoś powie, z̀e to byl rok tylko—
Trzy razy po cztery miesiace;
Ja powiem, z̀e to dni byly i noce sie nie ko´nczace.
Dzień dwanaście mial godzin,
Noc siedemset minut miala,
Minuta—sześćdziesiat sekund.
A kaźda sekunda bolala.
Someone will say it was only a year
three times four months,
But I say there were days and nights without end.
Each day had twelve hours,
each night seven hundred minutes,
each minute sixty seconds,
And each second—immeasurable pain.
29.
On August 7, 1944, a special raid by sixty-four fighter jets and seventy-six bombers of the US Air Force bombed the oil
refineries at Trzebina, 13 miles northeast of Auschwitz. On August 20, a raid by the 15th US Air Force began at
10:32PM, dropping a total of 1336 explosive bombs on G. I Farben synthetic oil and rubber plant located less than five
miles from the Birkenau gas chambers. On August 25, American airplanes again flew over Auschwitz and took detailed
photos of the camp, railways, gas chambers, crematoria and even a group on its way to death. On September 13, the
US Air Force re-attacked the G. I Farben factory, accidentally dropping a cluster of bombs on Auschwitz I. Additional
attacks followed.
30.
Help. . .
Drop the bombs on Auschwitz
So we may escape the helpless death of the gas chambers.
Hear us,
Parachute weapons,
Here we are,
hear us.
31.
To Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin:
The Death Factory at Auschwitz and the crematoria that were built at Birkenau have not stopped working to this very
day.Thus, we must renew our suggestion in the name of the entire Jewish nation: save those few still wavering between
life and death. Destroy the extermination camp at Auschwitz and other camps in the area, just as you destroy factories
producing gasoline, weapons and ammunition.The people waiting their turn in line for annihilation have nothing to lose
but their deaths in the gas chambers, and maybe some of them will be spared, and manage to escape in the uproar.
The destruction of Auschwitz will prevent hundreds of thousands from being brought to their deaths over the space of
several days, giving many thousands the chance to be spared from certain death.The blood of millions of victims of
Nazi extermination camps calls out to you, the blood of millions of Jews cries for help: Save those few remnants who
can still be rescued.
The target is beyond the maximum range of medium bombardment, dive bombers and fighter bombers.
Five miles away. . . only five miles away. . .
Here we are. . .
32.
At the present critical stage of the war in Europe, our strategic air forces are engaged in the destruction of industrial
target systems so vital to our effort that we cannot afford diversion.The targets suggested are not a part of these target systems and therefore the military value of the proposed effort is doubtful.
55
33.
CAD D/F dated 23 June 44 forwards to OPD for necessary action paraphrase of cable concerning air bombardment
of railroad centers to impede deportation of Jews to Poland, which message had been forwarded to the CAD. As this
message was referred to the Civil Affairs Division for appropriate action, the Operations Division does not consider
that it is appropriate for OPD to make reply.Therefore, action taken by OPD was to furnish CAD with a suggested
reply to be made by CAD.
Hear us, save us,
Can’t you see us?
We are all dying.
Bomb the tracks and stop the killing.
Here we are. . .
34.
Why are you silent! And why are you not doing anything? Why are those railroad tracks without a breach, and why
have they not been blown up? Have we not sent you nearly a hundred telegrams and many letters to tell you that
every day the expulsion transports travel that route? And Auschwitz still stands in its place and the gas chambers and
ovens still operate. What could be easier than to interrupt their operation and blow them up?
35.
I recommend no action be taken on this, since the matter has been fully presented several times previously.
36.
Had the will been strong enough and the heart stout enough then efforts to rescue would have been made and
succeeded. Since we remained feeble, since we remained complacent, since we remained. . .
37.
Perhaps some of the blame falls on me,
because I kept silent, uttered no cry,
waiting that at least one man should cry out:
“No!” but no one cried.
Only one thing was left—the patience to wait,
to wait that justice might prevail one day.
Perhaps that was part of my blame,
That I kept silent, did not speak.
As though I had nothing to say.
English Translations: Evan Fallenberg; German Translations: Carola Emrich-Fisher; Polish Translation: Blanka Bednarz
© 2007, Libretto compiled and arranged by Lior Navok
TEXT SOURCES
1. Zalman Gradowski (The scrolls of Auschwitz)
2. Train schedules from 1942
3. Collected testimonies
4. From testimony of survivors
5. Ellie Kulka, while waiting to be taken to the gas
chamber. Originally in Czech.
English translation by Stephen Jolly
6. Internal Nazi memorandum,
based on Hitler’s speech
7. Karel Fleishmann, Terezin camp
8. Riegner Telegram—10 August 1942
9. George L. Harrison (State Department)
10. Dr. Leo Lauterbach, Jerusalem, September 1942
11. Train schedules
12. Testimony by Jan Karski
13. Richard Lichtheim, Switzerland, 18,
September 42
14. Report of American official in Lisbon
15. Note given to a mother after her son was taken.
Poland
56
16. A telegram sent to Roosevelt and Churchill
from Jerusalem
17. Collected information from newspapers
18. British Colonial Office
19. Internal Nazi memorandum,
quoting Joseph Göbbels
20. A minute by Latham
21. Manifesto by the Bergson Group,
addressed to the US Senate
22. Zionist office in Switzerland
23. Evidence of S.T (Warshaw)
24. President Roosevelt, 24 March 1944
25. British Foreign Office
26. Report of Josiah DuBois to the
Secretary of Treasury
27. Rabbi Weissmandl, 16 May 1944
28. The Bergson Group newspaper advertisement
29. Written by a young Jewish woman;
found in Auschwitz
30. Collected reports
31. Fragments from survivors’ testimonies,
Auschwitz
32. Rabbi Weissmandl
33. Memorandum for the Assistant Secretary of War
34. US War Department
35. Rabbi Weissmandl
36. US War Department
37. See number 21
38. Anonymous, from “The Silence of the
Bystander,” collected by Safira Rapoport
The composer would like to thank and credit the
following people and institutions for their assistance
in this project:
Evan Fallenberg—Hebrew-English translations,
English texts consultant
Carola Emrich-Fisher—German translation
Blanka Bednarz—Polish consultant
Markus Goessl and Inge Huhn—
assistance with German documents
The Yad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem, Israel
The Central Zionist Archives,
Jerusalem, Israel
Joseph Wulf Bibliothek, Wannsee, Germany
The MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
DIE PROPHETEN
The Prophets
Die fünf Bühnen—Der Weg der Verheißung
The five stage levels of Der Weg der Verheißung
Die erste, unterste Bühne stellt eine Synagoge (Das Bethaus)
dar; Bühne 2 erhebt sich in Form einer leicht ansteigenden
Straße; Bühne 3, als Mittelschauplatz bezeichnet, verkörpert
eine aufwärtsführende Windung derselben Straße, mit einer
großen mittleren und zwei erhöhten Plattformen zu beiden
Seiten; Bühne 4 baut sich auf drei Stufen über dem
Mittelschauplatz vor, und hier beginnt der sakrale Spielraum.
Bühne 5 erhebt sich als die Himmelstreppe: hier ist die
Sphäre der Engel und des göttlichen Wortes.
The first and lowest stage represents a Synagogue (The
House of Prayer); the second stage rises up in the form of
a gently climbing road; the third stage, called the Middle
Theatre, embodies a curve of the same road, wending
upwards, with a large platform raised up in the middle,
and two raised platforms to either side; the fourth stage is
built above the Middle Theatre, and is where the sacred
part of the drama begins.The fifth stage rises up as a
stairway to Heaven; this is the sphere of the Angels and
of the Word of God.
PROLOGUE: HOUSE OF PRAYER
PROLOGUE: HOUSE OF PRAYER
Es ist dunkel im Bethaus. Der Rabbi entzündet mit dem brennenden Zünder eine neue Kerze. Der Dreizehnjährige steht
dicht beim Rabbi. Der Entfremdete (der Vater des
Dreizehnjährige) sitzt auf den Stufen der Lesekanzel
It is dark. At the lectern on the raised dais, the Rabbi lights
a new candle with a taper. The Thirteen-Year-Old stands
close to the Rabbi. The Estranged One (the father of the
Thirteen-Year-Old) sits on the steps of the lectern (Almenor)
Fugato I
Fugato I
Der Rabbi In diesem Buche stehn die Lasten der
Propheten geschrieben…Du zitterst, mein Knabe…
The Rabbi In this book are written the burdens of the
prophets…You tremble, my boy …
Der Dreizehnjährige Der Wind bläst aus diesem
Buche.
The Thirteen-Year-Old The wind is blowing from
that book.
Fugato II
Fugato II
Der Rabbi Das Volk hat die Last Gottes von
sich geworfen…
The Rabbi The people have cast off the burden
of God …
Der Entfremdete Auch ich habe die Last Gottes von
mir geworfen.
Aber ich will sie wiederaufnehmen.
Denn mein Sohn führt mich zurück.
The Estranged One I too have cast off the burden
of God.
But I will take it up again.
For it is my son who has brought me back.
Der Rabbi Die Last tragen ist schwer, das Schwerste aber
ist, sie wiederaufzunehmen.
The Rabbi To carry the burden is hard, but hardest
of all is to take it up again.
Fugato III
Fugato III
Der Dreizehnjährige Und wenn es alle tun, dann
kommt Messias…nicht wahr?
The Thirteen-Year-Old And if all of us take up the
burden again, then the Messiah will come…
isn’t that so?
Fugato IV
Fugato IV
Der Dreizehnjährige Ich sehne mich nach Messias…ist
es schon seine Stimme?
The Thirteen-Year-Old I long for the Messiah to
come…is that his voice already?
Der Rabbi Es ist die Stimme Jesajah, des Künders…
The Rabbi It is the voice of Isaiah, the prophet …
57
1. PROPHESIES
1. PROPHESIES
Der Prophet Jesajah tritt auf der Spitze des linken
Turmes ins Licht
The Prophet Isaiah steps out into the light at the top of
the left-hand tower
Jesajah Wächter! Wie weit in der Nacht schon?
Wächter! Wie viel noch des Dunkels?
Der Prophet Jeremiah tritt auf der Spitze des rechten
Turmes ins Licht
Isaiah Watchman! What of the night?
Watchman! How much longer will it be dark?
The Prophet Jeremiah steps out into the light at the top of
the right-hand tower
Jeremiah Wehe, wehe! Jerusalem. Wehe, wehe!
Zum Steinbruch geworden, zur Wohnung des Schakals!
Der Tod steigt durchs Fenster der hohen Paläste.
Er metzelt die Kinder auf Straßen und Plätzen.
Die Leichen verwesen wie Dung auf den Äckern,
Wie faulende Garben vom Schnitter vergessen!
Warum, warum nur gebar mich die Mutter?…
Warum nicht wurde ihr Schoß mir zum Grab!
Jeremiah Woe, woe! Jerusalem. Woe, woe!
Reduced to a heap of stones, the home of jackals!
Death climbeth through the window of the great palaces.
He slaughtereth the children on the streets
and marketplaces.
Corpses decay like dung on the fields,
Like rotting sheaves forgotten by the reaper!
Why, but why did my mother give birth to me? …
Why was her womb not my grave!
Jesajah (wie antwortend)
Isaiah (as if answering) Comfort ye, comfort ye
my people. So saith the Lord.
In the last days shall all the nations of the earth rise up
And say: Come ye, let us go up to Israel;
Since from Zion alone goeth forth the law,
And the Word of God from Jerusalem.
Then they shall beat their swords into ploughshares
And their spears into sickles and pruning hooks.
Tröste, tröste mein Volk. So spricht der Herr.
Einst brechen die Völker der Erde auf
Und sprechen: wir ziehen zu Israel hin.
Denn von Zion allein geht die Lehre aus
Und das göttliche Wort von Jerusalem.
Dann werden sie schmieden die Schwerter um
Und die Lanzen zu Sichel und Pflugschar.
Die Türme verblassen. Das Bethaus hat sich allmählich mit
der Gemeinde gefüllt
The towers fade away. The House of Prayer has been
filling with members of the community
Der Rabbi (lesend), Der Zorn des Herrn aber ruhte über
Juda und Jerusalem…Seht ihr denn nicht, was sie tun in
den Städten Judas und treiben auf den Straßen
Jerusalems?…“
The Rabbi (reading from the Torah-scroll)
“But the wrath of the Lord rested upon Judah and
Jerusalem…Do ye not see what they do in the towns of
Judah and practise in the streets
of Jerusalem? …”
2.VANITIES
2.VANITIES
Man hört ein Klingeln von Glöckchen und Schellen. Im
Eingang der Höhle sitzt der Widersprecher als
Götzenverkäufer, bietet seine Ware feil und schwingt die
Glocke. Eine üppig gekleidete Menge füllt die Straße
A tinkling of bells is heard. In the entrance to the cavern sits
the Adversary dressed as a seller of idols; he offers his wares
for sale and rings bells. A luxuriously dressed crowd throngs
the streets
Der Widersprecher Kauft Götter! Kauft Götter!
Kauft Baalim,Teraphim!
Hilft der große Gott euch nicht, so helfen euch
die kleinen.
Kauft Götter…
The Adversary Gods for sale! Gods for sale!
Buy Baalim,Teraphim!
If the great God helpeth you not, then the
small ones will.
Gods for sale …
Der Rabbi (lesend) Und es erging das Wort des Herrn
an mich: Geh und verkünde den Bewohnern
des Landes.“
The Rabbi (reading) “And the Word of the Lord
came unto me: Go and preach to all the inhabitants
of the land.”
Ein Knabe Der Narr kommt, der Narr kommt, der Narr
mit dem Joch kommt!, usw.
A Boy The fool is coming, the fool is coming, the fool
with the yoke is coming!, etc
58
Der Widersprecher Kauft Götter! Kauft Götter!
Kauft Baalim,Teraphim!
The Adversary Gods for sale! Gods for sale!
Buy Baalim,Teraphim!
Mehrere Kinder Der Narr mit dem Joch kommt,
Der Narr mit dem Joch kommt!
Several Children The fool is coming, the fool with
the yoke is coming!
Der Widersprecher Kauft Götter! Kauft Götter!
Kauft Baalim,Teraphim!
The Adversary Gods for sale! Gods for sale!
Buy Baalim,Teraphim!
Mehrere Kinder Der Narr mit dem Joch kommt,
Der Narr mit dem Joch kommt!
Several Children The fool is coming, the fool with
the yoke is coming!
Der Prophet Jeremiah erscheint am unteren Straßendende,
ein hölzernes Joch um den Nacken, einen Knotenstock in der
Hand, in Lumpen, und bleibt erschöpft stehen.
The Prophet Jeremiah, dressed in rags, appears at the lower
end of the street; a wooden yoke is on his neck, a knotty
stick in his hand. He stops, exhausted
Jeremiah Warum hast du meines Mundes dich
bemächtigt,
Oh Herr, warum mich, warum mich überrannt?
Nun bin ich ein Greuel auf allen Gassen,
Ein Kinder Gespötte von Haus zu Haus.
Ach siehe, dein Wort ist Anstoß und Schande.
Wie gerne verwürgt ich’s…Aber es brennt,
Es brennt, es brennt!…Ich kann es nicht schlucken…
Jeremiah Why hast thou made my tongue thy
mouthpiece,
Oh Lord, why hast thou taken me over?
Now I am a byword on every street,
Ridiculed by children from house to house.
Oh see, thy Word is an offence and a scandal
Would I could strangle it…But it is burning,
It is burning, it is burning!…I cannot swallow it …
Die Menge Der geifernde Fasler…der bissige Narr!
The Crowd Vituperative jabberer…Biting fool! …
Der Widersprecher Kauft Götter, kauft Baalim,
Teraphim!
The Adversary Gods for sale! Buy Baalim,
Teraphim!
Jeremiah (die Götzen gewahrend) Mein Volk!
Du Jugendliebe des Herrn!
Du brachst ihm die Ehe,
du brünstige Dirne!
Jeremiah (becoming aware of the idols) My people! Thou,
the first love of the Lord!
Thou hast broken thy marriage vows,
thou shameless harlot!
Frauen Der geifernde Fasler, der bissige Narr!
Women Vituperative jabberer…Biting fool!
Jeremiah Du säufst aus Pfützen und sumpfigen
Gruben…
Jeremiah Thou drinkest from puddles and
marshy holes …
Der Widersprecher Kauft Götter, kauft Baalim,
Teraphim!
The Adversary Gods for sale! Buy Baalim,Teraphim!
Jeremiah Vom lebendigen Wasser kehrst du dich ab.
Er schlägt mit seinem Stock die Götzen wütend auseinander
Wer lebt, wird die Toten des Tales beneiden
An jenem Tag, der von Norden kommt.
Ein Sturm bricht auf, ein Leu aus dem Dickicht…
Du aber, Zion, du wandelst in Purpur
Und schminkst dir die Wange und malst dir das Aug.
Heul lieber auf und hüll dich in Lumpen.
Fern schrillt schon der Schrei der Gebärerin…
Es ist beschlossen, doch noch nicht geschehn,
Noch ist es nicht da…noch nicht…noch nicht…
Jeremiah From the living water thou turnest away.
He strikes the idols furiously with his stick and scatters them
The living will envy those in the Valley of the Dead
On that day, which cometh from the north.
A storm shall break forth, a lion out of the thicket …
But thou, Zion, thou dost prance around in purple,
And put rouge on thy cheeks, and paintest thine eyes.
Howl rather and wrap thee in rags.
Far away, even now the cry of the woman in labour
is shrilling …
It is ordained, but not yet come to pass,
It is not yet here…not yet…not yet …
Er hat links die Höhe der Straße erreicht und verschwindet
He reaches the top of the street at the left and disappears
Der Widersprecher (durchdringend) Wenn Unheil
geschieht, trägt der Träumer die Schuld!
The Adversary (shrieking) If there is a disaster, let the
dreamer be blamed!
Eine Frau Dort, seht Chananjah, den wahren Propheten!
A Woman There, see Hananiah, the true prophet.
59
Chananjah, der falsche Prophet, ist schon während des Vorigen
am unteren Straßenende aufgetaucht
Hananiah, the false prophet, has appeared at the lower end
of the street
Chananjah „Erwach,Tochter Zions, leg
Siegesschmuck an
Und Prachtgewänder, Jerusalem…“
So singt Jesajah, und so sing auch ich.
Wer gleicht dir, oh Volk…
Hananiah “Awake, Daughter of Zion, deck thyself in the
jewels of victory,
And thou, Jerusalem, in robes of splendour …”
Thus singeth Isaiah, and so too sing I.
Who can compare to thee, oh people …
Die Frau Wer gleicht dir, oh Prophet!
The Woman Who can compare to thee, oh prophet!
Chananjah Zum Tempel, du schönes,
gesegnetes Volk!
Hananiah To the Temple, oh beauteous and
blessed people!
Während die Menge sich rufend um Chananjah zum Festzug
schart, wird die Straße dunkel
While the noisy crowd gathers around Hananiah for the
festive procession, the street darkens
3. CONFLICT AND SIEGE
3. CONFLICT AND SIEGE
Der Rabbi (lesend), Im selben Jahre, zu Anfang der
Regierung König Zedekiahs, sprach der Prophet
Chananjah im Hause des Herrn vor Priestern
und Volke also…“
The Rabbi (reading) “In the same year, at the beginning
of the reign of King Zedekiah, spake the prophet
Hananiah in the House of the Lord in the presence
of the priests and the people thus …”
Der Vorhof des Tempels (Altarbühne) leuchtet auf. Der Zug
Chananjahs drängt sich unter dem Altar. Er selbst ist bis zum
Tor des Allerheiligsten hinaufgestiegen, wo er zwischen Pashur
und dem Tempelverwalter steht
The Court of the Temple (Altar stage) lights up. Hananiah’s
procession pushes its way under the altar. He himself has
climbed up to the door of the Holiest of Holies, where he
stands between Pashur and the Temple Administrator
Chananjah Zu mir sprach Zebaoth,
der Gott meiner Väter:
Zerschmettern werde ich Babylons Zwang…
Hananiah To me spake Zabaoth,
the God of my Fathers:
I shall shatter the dominance of Babylon…
Jeremiah (im Volk auftauchend)
Amen! Er tue, wie er gesprochen!
Jeremiah (appearing among the people)
Amen! Let the Lord do as he hath spoken!
Chananjah Du aber, Zion, rüste den Krieg!
Hananiah But thou, O Zion, arm thee for war!
Jeremiah Die wahren Künder künden den Frieden.
Jeremiah True prophets prophesy peace.
Chananjah Warum trägt der Narr das Holz
auf dem Rücken?
Hananiah Why doth the fool carry
wood on his back?
Jeremiah Ich schleppe Israels künftige Last.
Jeremiah I carry Israel’s future woes.
Chananjah Hierher mit dem Kummer!
Jeremiah wird das Joch abgenommen
Ich tue ein Zeichen…
Er hebt das Joch hoch und bricht es mitten durch
Hananiah Give me these woes!
The yoke is taken from Jeremiah’s shoulders
I shall show you a sign …
He lifts the yoke high, and breaks it in two
Jeremiah Das Holz zerbrachst du und schmiedest dafür
Ein ehern Gestänge um unsern Nacken…
(stossweise gegen sich selbst kämpfend)
Es ist beschlossen…Doch nicht vollzogen…
Tut Buße…Kehrt um…
Traut nicht den Feisten…den Vogelstellern…
Sie drücken die Armen…Sie beugen das Recht…
Kehrt um…Eine Frist noch…Dann liegt zerbrochen
Jerusalem…Wie ein Töpfergefäß…
Und seinen Tempel verbrennt Adonai.
Jeremiah Thou hast broken the yoke of wood,
but instead
Rods of iron dost thou forge for our neck …
(gasping, in fits and starts)
It is decreed …But not yet carried out …
Repent…Turn ye around …
Trust not the pot bellies…the bird-catchers …
They oppress the poor…They bend the law …
Turn ye around…A little while…Then shall
Jerusalem lie broken …Like a potter’s vessel …
And its Temple shall be burned by Adonai.
60
Chananjah Lästerung mitten im Hause des Herrn!
Hananiah Blasphemy! here in the House of the Lord!
Der Widersprecher Schlagt ihn zu Boden, den
Lügenverkünder!
The Adversary Strike him to the ground, the peddler of
lies!
Das Volk Steiniget ihn! Steiniget ihn! usw.
The People Stone him! Stone him! etc.
Jeremiah wird niedergeschlagen. Dunkelheit
Jeremiah is thrown to the ground. Darkness
Der Dreizehnjährige Jetzt haben sie den Propheten
Gottes erschlagen…
The Thirteen-Year-Old Now they have slain the
prophet of God …
Der Rabbi Mein Knabe, wie wohl wäre ihm jetzt im
Tode. Doch er muss das Ende sehn, das er von
Anfang sah.
The Rabbi My boy, death would be a blessing for him.Yet
he must stay to witness the end he foresaw from the
beginning.
(lesend)
(reading)
König Zedekiah tat, was dem Herrn übel gefiel. Er
empörte sich wider Nebukadnezar, Grossherrn 4von
Babel, ihm weiter zu zinsen…“
“King Zedekiah did that which was evil in the sight of
the Lord. He rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, King of
Babylon, and refused to pay him more taxes …”
„Im neunten Jahre Zedekiahs kam Nebukadnezar vor
Jerusalem und belagert’es…Am Tore Benjamin aber wurde
der Prophet Jeremiah von den Wachen ergriffen…“
“In the ninth year of King Zedekiah came Nebuchadnezzar
against Jerusalem and besieged it…But at Benjamin’s Gate
the prophet Jeremiah was seized by the guards …”
Die Straße ist hell. Wachen schleppen den gefesselten
Jeremaih den Weg hinab. Ein tobender Volksauflauf folgt, der
Widersprecher an der Spitze
The street is bright. Soldiers drag the fettered Jeremiah
down the road. A frenzied group of people follow, the
Adversary at their head
Die Menge Reißt ihn in Stücke!
Schuldig…schuldig…nur er…usw.
The Crowd Tear him in pieces!
Guilty…he alone is guilty! etc.
Die Krieger haben Jeremiah mit Mühe zur Höhle gebracht.
Dort drängen sie das Volk nach beiden Seiten zurück; am
Rande der Mittelbühne treten Pashur und Chananjah ins Licht
The soldiers have brought Jeremiah through the crowd to the
cavern. There they push the people back on either side. At the
edge of the middle-stage, Pashur and Hananiah move into
the light
Chananjah Jetzt prahle mit Zeichen
und deute Gesichte!
Wo ist dein Wort jetzt?
Jeremiah schweigt
Hananiah Now boast with signs
and decipher faces!
Where are thy fine words?
Jeremiah stays silent
Die Menge Wir wollen sein Blut!
The Crowd We want his blood!
PashurWarum soll sein Blut noch über uns kommen!?
Unblutig stirbt er.
(zu den Wachen)
Werft ihn hinab
In die Abfallsgrube unterm Palaste!
Pashur Why should his blood be on our hands?
Let him die without shedding blood.
(to the soldiers)
Cast him down there
Into the sewers under the Palace!
Die Menge (wie eine Stimme) Werft ihn hinab!
Sein Tod bringt uns Sieg!, usw
The People (as one voice) Throw him in!
His death will bring us victory, etc.
Jeremiah wird in die Höhle gestoßen. Alles dunkel. Mächtiges
Anwachsen des Belagerungslärm
Jeremiah is pushed into the cavern. Everything is dark.
Tremendous increase in the noise of the siege
Der Rabbi, Die Bollwerke des Feindes reichten bis an die
Stadt, sie einzunehmen…“
Rabbi (reading) “The trenches of the enemy reached
unto the city, in order to take it …”
Jähe Stille. Der Palastsaal wird hell. Zedekiah kommt in voller
Rüstung mit Ebed Melech
Sudden stillness. The palace room becomes brightly lit.
Zedekiah arrives in full armour with Ebed Melech
Zedekiah Wir schlugen den Angriff…
Zu essen…zu trinken!
Zedekiah We beat back the attack …
Let us eat…let us drink!
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Ebed Melech (reicht ihm ein kleines Brot)
Ebed Melech (handing him a small piece of bread)
Nichts als dies Brot
Ist mehr zu finden im Hause des Königs.
Nothing but this small loaf Is to be found in the
King’s house.
Zedekiah Dies einzige Brot…
Und das Volk
und die Kinder!?
Ich will nichts essen!…
Zedekiah Only this piece of bread…
And the people and
the children!?
I will not eat!…
(Pause)
(pause)
Lies aus dem Buch Jeremiahs mir vor!
Read to me from the Book of Jeremiah!
Ebed Melech (im Glutschein des Kohlenbeckens lesend)
Ebed Melech (reading by the glow of a brazier)
Wie hockt so einsam die Menschenreiche
Gleich einer Witwe die Stadt voll Glanz?
Zur Fremde wandert in Fron und Fesseln
Das Volk von Zion…
How she sitteth so alone—she that was full of people,
Like as a widow, the city once full of splendour?
In foreign lands they are exiled, in slavery and chains
The people of Zion…
Zedekiah Schweig!
Zedekiah Be silent!
Es erhellt sich das Innere der Höhle schwach. Man sieht drin
Jeremiah, bis zur Hüfte versunken
The inside of the cavern lights up dimly. Jeremiah is visible
within, sunk in mud up to the hips
Jeremiah In Fron und Fesseln das Volk von Zion,
Der König flüchtet wie scheues Wild.
Oh, wie ich leide und innen brenne,
Mein Auge rinnt, und rinnt und ruhet nicht…
Jeremiah In slavery and chains—the people of Zion;
The King fleeth like a creature in fear.
Oh, how I suffer and burn inwardly,
Mine eye is full of tears—they run down and cease not …
Zedekiah Ich hör seine Stimme.
Zedekiah I hear his voice!
Ebed Melech Jeremiah klagt.
Ebed Melech Jeremiah laments!
Zedekiah Steig nieder zur Grube und bring ihn zu mir!
Zedekiah Climb down into the refuse pit and
bring him to me!
Ebed Melech eilt davon. Der Vorhang des Allerheiligsten
erschimmert zart. Zwei Weisse und ein Dunkler Engel treten
vor. Die Weissen halten je eine verlöschte, der Dunkle eine
brennende Fackel in der Hand
Ebed Melech hurries away. The curtain of the Holiest of
Holies shimmers delicately. Two White Angels and a Dark
Angel appear. The White Angels each hold an extinguished
torch, the Dark Angel a burning torch
4.THE CHOICE
4.THE CHOICE
Der dunkle Engel Der Herr allein kann sein Haus
vernichten. Ich habe Auftrag: Entzündet den Brand!
Dark Angel The Lord alone can destroy his House.
I am commissioned: light the fire!
Der erste weiße Engel Ich habe Auftrag:
Noch wartet die Gnade.
First White Angel I am commissioned: mercy is still at
hand.
Der zweite weiße Engel Ich habe Auftrag:
Es entscheide der Mensch.
Second White Angel I am commissioned:
let mortals decide.
Stille. Ebed Melech kommt mit Jeremiah
vor den König.
All is quiet. Ebed Melech returns, bringing Jeremiah
before the King
Zedekiah Die Weisung des Herrn!?
Verhehle mir nichts!
Zedekiah The Lord’s decision?
Conceal nothing from me!
Jeremiah So spricht Adonai: Du fällst in die Hand
Des Königs von Babel, du und die deinen.
Jeremiah Thus saith Adonai:Thou shalt fall into the
hands of The King of Babylon, thou and all that is thine.
Zedekiah Weiter!
Zedekiah Speak on!
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Jeremiah Das Schwert und der Brand verzehrt
Die Stadt, das Volk, den heiligen Tempel.
Jeremiah The sword and the torch shall consume
The city, the people, the Holy Temple.
Zedekiah Weiter!
Zedekiah Speak on!
Jeremiah Der Wille des Herren wirft
Den Rest seines Volks auf die Straßen der Fremde.
Jeremiah The will of the Lord shall scatter
The remnant of his people onto the roads
of foreign lands.
Zedekiah Das ist noch nicht alles…nicht alles…
Und ich?
Zedekiah That is not yet all…not all…And I?
Jeremiah (leise), Sie werden dich blenden auf beiden
Augen.
Jeremiah (softly) They will blind thee in both thine eyes.
Zedekiah (nach einem Schweigen), Und nichts stürzt mehr
das Beschlossene um?
Zedekiah (after a moment’s silence) And nothing shall
now overturn this decision?
Jeremiah Du selbst nur kannst es…
Ein Atemzug bleibt dir…
Jeremiah Thou alone canst do this…
One breath remains to thee …
Zedekiah Ich selbst…
Zedekiah I myself …
Jeremiah In Lumpen gehüllt und Verfall,
Mit bloßen Sohlen, die Haare voll Asche,
So sollst du ins Lager von Babylon gehn
Und niederfallen vor Nebukadnezar,
Vergebung erflehend von ihm und Bestand.
Jeremiah Clothed in rags and decay,
Barefooted, with ashes in thy hair,
Thus shalt thou go into the Babylonian camp,
And fall on thy knees before Nebuchadnezzar,
Begging forgiveness, and pleading to be spared.
Widersprecher, Dort ist der Verräter, der Uberläufer!
The Adversary Traitor! Turncoat!
Zwei murrende Volkshaufen drängen sich rechts und links vor
der Palasthalle. Der linke Haufen steht unter Führung des
Widersprechers. An der Spitze des Rechten erscheinen Pashur
und Chananjah
Two muttering groups of people push to the right and left in f
ront of the palace halls. The left group is under the leadership
of the Adversary; at the front of the right group appear
Pashur and Hananiah
Pashur (zum König), Gott schuf dich hoch und du machst
dich niedrig?
Pashur (to the king) God raised thee up, and
thou makest thyself lowly?
Das Volk Er treibt ihn zur Schmach.
The People He bringeth him to shame.
Chananjah (triumphierend zu seinem Haufen),
Des Königs Berater
Ist der Verräter, der Träumer von Wahn.
Hananiah (triumphantly to his followers)
The King’s counsellor,
Is a traitor, a mad dreamer.
Das Volk Die anderen Völker, was werden sie sagen?
The People The other nations—what will they say?
Zedekiah (hat sein Schwert entblösst) Dies ist Davids
Schwert!
Zedekiah (drawing his sword) This is the sword of David!
Jeremiah Er will dein Schwert nicht, er will deine Demut.
Jeremiah The Lord requireth thy humility,
not thy sword.
Die drei Engel am Altar, Entscheide, entscheide!
Chor I & II Entscheide! Entscheide!
Chananjah, Pashur,Widersprecher Du kennst
unsern Willen!
The three Angels on the Altar Decide! Decide!
Choirs I & II Decide! Decide!
Hananiah, Pashur, Adversary Thou knowest our will!
Chor II Chananjah!
Choir II Hananiah!
Chor I Jeremiah!
Choir I Jeremiah!
Chananjah, Pashur,Widersprecher Beuge dich nicht.
Beuge dich nicht.
Hananiah, Pashur, Adversary Bow not the knee! Bow
not the knee.
Chor II Chananjah! Chananjah!, usw.
Choir II Hananiah! Hananiah!, etc.
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Chor 1 Jeremiah! Jeremiah!, usw.
Entscheide!
Choir I Jeremiah! Jeremiah!, etc.
Decide!
Chor II Entscheide! Entscheide!, usw.
Entscheide! Entschiede!, usw.
Choir II Decide! Decide!
Decide! Decide!, etc.
Chor I & II Entscheide! Entscheide!, usw.
Choir I & II Decide! Decide!, etc.
Jeremiah Entscheide! Entscheide!
Gott sende dir seine Stimme!
Jeremiah Decide! Decide!
May the Lord lend thee his voice!
Zedekiah Entsetzliche Wahl…
Ich kann mich nicht beugen…
Nun tue der Herr nach seinem Beschluss!
Zedekiah Intolerable choice…
I cannot humble myself …
Let the Lord do according to His decree!
Der Palastsaal verdunkelt sich. Der Belagerungsdonner währt
aufs Äußerste. Der Dunkle Engel hebt seine Fackel hoch
über den Kopf und berührt mit ihr den Vorhang des
Allerheiligsten, der sofort mit einer riesigen Flamme verlodert.
Zugleich schleudern die beiden Lichten Engel rechts und links
ihre Fackeln in die Tiefe. Feuer schießt auf. Qualm erfüllt die
Bibelbühnen. Donnernder Einsturz der Tempelsäulen, des
Palastes, der Türme. Dann ein kurzes helles Geschmetter. Stille
The Palace hall darkens. The thunder of the siege continues at
full pitch, unceasingly. The Dark Angel lifts his torch high over
his head and with it touches the curtain of the Holiest
of Holies, which immediately blazes up with a giant flame.
Simultaneously the two White Angels hurl their torches into
the deep. Fire shoots up. Thick smoke fills the scriptural stages.
With a thunderous noise the Temple pillars, the palace, and
the towers collapse. Then a short blast of
trumpets. Silence
Die Männer im Bethaus haben sich, in ihre Gebetmäntel
gehüllt, zu Boden geworfen
In the House of Prayer all have wrapped themselves in their
prayer robes and thrown themselves to the ground
Die Gemeinde Messias, wo bist du?
Messias, wo bist du?
The Community in the House of Prayer Messiah,
where art thou? Messiah, where art thou?
Der Rabbi (lesend) Am neunten des vierten Monats
wurde die Stadt erstürmt…der Tempel verbrannt…der
König geblendet…das Volk nach Babel hinweggeführt…“
The Rabbi (reading) “On the ninth day of the fourth
month the city fell…the Temple was burned…t
he King blinded…the people carried off to Babylon …”
Die Gemeinde Messias, Messias…
Der Rabbi schliesst das Buch der Propheten
The Community Messiah, Messiah…
The Rabbi closes the Book of the Prophets
Der Rabbi Eine Stimme zu Rama…bitterlich
Weinen…Rahel weint um ihre Kinder…Rahel…Rahel!
The Rabbi A voice is heard in Ramah…a bitter weeping…Rachel weeping for her children…Rachel…Rachel!
Er verhüllt sein Haupt im Gebetmantel und beugt sich tief
über das Pult. Auf den Ruinen des Palastes tritt die sitzende
Gestalt der Rahel in ein nächtiges Licht
He wraps his head in his prayer robe and bows himself low
over the lectern. Amid the ruins of the palace appears the
image of Rachel, seated, in the light of the night sky
Rahel Oh König der Welt, du hörtest mein Leid
Und gabst mir Kinder zur Ewigkeit.
Du gabst sie mir gnädig, als ich zu dir schrie,
Und jetzt vernichtest und nimmst du mir sie!?
Rachel Oh King of the world, thou hast
heard my lament
And gavest me children unto eternity.
Thou gavest me them graciously, when I cried unto thee,
And dost thou now destroy them, and take them
from me?
Der Dreizehnjährige, der einzige in der Gemeinde, der jetzt
noch wach ist, reckt sich hoch
The Thirteen-Year-Old, who is the only member of the
community still awake, stretches upwards
64
Der Dreizehnjährige Messias…wo bist du…
The Thirteen-Year-Old Messiah…where art thou …
Die Ruinen und Rahel verschwinden. Langsam strahlt die
Himmelstreppe auf. Noch immer steigt der letzte Rauch vom
Tempelbrand empor, der die Himmelstreppe wie ein leichter
Nebel erfüllt. In diesem Nebel wird wie ein völlig unkörperliches Gebilde aus Licht die Gestalt des Engels der Endzeit sichtbar. Er breitet seine Arme über die schlafende
Gemeinde aus
The ruins and Rachel vanish. Slowly the stairway to Heaven
lights up. The last smoke from the burning Temple still curls
upwards, to envelope the stairway in a light haze. Becoming
visible within the haze is the disembodied presence—as if
formed from light—of The Angel of the End of Time. He
extends his arms over the sleeping community
5.THE ANSWER
5.THE ANSWER
Der Engel der Endzeit Ihr Schläfer des Schmerzes!
Kein Zeitengericht
Kann Israel löschen und machen zunicht.
Der ewige Bund, die Verheißung des Herrn
Wird währen länger als Sonne und Stern.
Seid dankbar dem Leid! Denn was auch geschieht,
Ist göttliche Kraft, die euch höher zieht.
Seid dankbar dem Feuer, weil ‘s läuternd euch zwingt,
Dass mit Gottes Liebe die Welt ihr durchdringt.
Mein Volk, vernimmst du im Traume den Laut,
Des Bräutigams Stimme, die Wonne der Braut?
Ich zieh dir entgegen. Nun wandre zugleich
In meine Arme, ins harrende Reich…
The Angel of the End of Time Ye people who
sleep from grief! No court bound by time
Can extinguish Israel and bring her to naught.
The eternal bond, the promise of the Lord
Shall endure beyond sun and stars.
Be grateful to sorrow! For in all that cometh to pass
Dwelleth the divine power that draweth you higher.
Be grateful to the fire, since through purification it
compelleth you
To spread God’s love throughout the world.
My people: dost thou begin to hear in a dream the sounds
Of the voice of the bridegroom, of the joy of the bride?
I draw near to thee. So respond by coming
Into my arms, and into the kingdom that awaits …
Die Himmelstreppe verblasst. Morgenrot auf den Schläfern.
Näher kommende Trompetenstöße vor dem Bethaus
The stairway to Heaven fades. Morning light on the sleeping
people. Trumpet calls come nearer to the House of Prayer
Der Dreizehnjährige Wacht auf…Ich habe
Antwort…Wacht auf…
The Thirteen-Year-Old Wake up… I have received
an answer… All wake up…
Die Türen des Bethauses werden aufgetreten. Bewaffnete
dringen ein, unter ihnen der Bote des Königs
The doors of the House of Prayer are kicked open.
Armed men rush in, among them the King’s Messenger
Der Bote des Königs (verlesend) Befehl unsres
Allergnädigsten Königs: „Wir verfügen, dass diese
Gemeinde Israels das Herrschaftsgebiet unsrer
Stadt bei Strafe des Lebens bis Sonnenuntergang
zu verlassen habe…“
The King’s Messenger (reading from a decree) The
orders of our most gracious King: “We decree, that these
communities of Israel, on pain of death, must leave the
occupied area of our city by nightfall…”
Dunkelheit auf sämtlichen Bühnen, auch im Bethaus. Nur das
Orchester ist erleuchtet
Darkness at all stage levels, including the House of Prayer.
Only the orchestra is illuminated
6. HABONIM (THE BUILDERS):
INTERLUDE FOR ORCHESTRA
6. HABONIM (THE BUILDERS):
INTERLUDE FOR ORCHESTRA
Full lighting when trumpets and trombones proclaim
the ‘Promise’ theme.
65
7. A VISION OF TEMPLES
7. A VISION OF TEMPLES
Narrative time is suspended on the contemporary and the
scriptural levels, as recollections of the second Temple and
Solomon’s dedication of it become a means of projecting
images of reconstruction and hymns to peace between
nations
Die Stimme Salomos Nun senke dich,
Herr, in der Wolke herab!
Zwar ist dir all deine Erde zu eng
Und die Himmel der Himmel umfassen dich nicht.
Wie möchtest du wohnen in einem Haus,
Das ein Mensch dir gebaut!? Doch wende dich her
Zu diesem Trinkgefäß des Gebets
Das dir dein Knecht und dein Volk darreicht.
Schaff Recht und erhöre dein heiliges Volk,
Auch wenn es sündigt, am ewigen Ort,
Denn Staub ist Sünde. Erhör und vergib!
Doch nicht nur unser erbarme dich, Herr,
Die fremden Völker nimm gnädig ans Herz,
Wenn sie ihr Flehen tragen zu dir,
Damit dich die ganze Erde erkennt!
The Voice of Solomon Now descend, Lord,
enter the holy cloud!
Behold thine earth is too small for thee
And the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee.
How shalt thou live in a house,
That a mortal has built for thee! Yet turn
To this chalice of prayer
Offered by thy servant and thy people.
Bring justice, and in the eternal courts,
Hear thy chosen people, even though they sin,
For sin is in the dust of mortals. Hear and forgive!
But extend thy mercy not only to us, Lord,
Graciously take other nations to thy heart,
If they turn to thee with their pleading,
So that the whole earth shall know thy name!
(zum Volk gewendet)
Dich aber segne ich, Israel.
Das Wort der Verheißung erfüllt sich an dir
Von Stufe zu Stufe. Lebe im Herrn!
Dein Name Israel.
(turning to the people)
But thee, Israel, I bless.
The Word of Promise is fulfilled in thee
From step to step. Live in the Lord!
Thy name is Israel.
Chor I & II Ihr Völker, klatscht in die Hände,
Und weihet dem Herrn euren Jubel.
Er ist der König der Erde,
Er unterwirft sich die Stämme
Und wird die Heiden bekehren
Drum jubelt mit Klang und mit Feuer!
Choir I & II Ye nations, clap your hands
And dedicate your jubilation to the Lord.
He is the King of all the earth,
He overcometh all the tribes
And will convert the unbelievers,
Therefore sing praises, sing praises with trumpets
and with fire!
Der Rabbi Gelobt seist du, König der Welt, der
uns am Leben erhielt und diese Zeit hat erreichen
lassen…Gelobt sei der König der Welt.
Rabbi Praise be unto thee, King over all the world, who
hast preserved our life, and hast brought us to this
day…The King of the world be praised. Be thou praised,
oh King of the world.
Chor I Ihr Völker, klatscht in die Hände
Und weihet dem Herrn euren Jubel,
Er ist der König der Erde.
Er unterwirft sich die Stämme
Und wird die Heiden bekehren,
Drum jubelt mit Klang und mit Feuer.
Choir I Ye nations, clap your hands
And dedicate your jubilation to the Lord.
He is the King of the earth.
He overcometh the tribes,
He will convert the unbelievers,
Therefore sing praises with trumpets and with fire.
Die ganze Gemeinde Ihr Völker, klatscht in die Hände
Und weihet dem Herrn euren Jubel,
Er ist der König der Erde.
Er unterwirft sich die Stämme
The Whole Community Ye nations, clap your hands
And dedicate your jubilation to the Lord.
He is the King of the earth.
He overcometh the tribes,
66
Chor I & II Gelobt seist du, König der Welt!
Gelobt sei der König der Welt.
Er unterwirft sich die Stämme
Alleluia!
Gelobt sei der König der Welt.
Er wird die Heiden bekehren,
Drum jubelt, drum jubelt mit Klang und mit Feuer.
Drum jubelt mit Klang und mit Feuer.
Gepriesen, gepriesen mit Klang, mit Feuer
Gelobt seist du, o König der Welt!
Gelobt seist du, o König der Welt!
Choir I & II Be thou praised, oh King of the world!
The King of the world be praised.
He overcometh the tribes,
Alleluia!
The King of the world be praised.
He will convert the unbelievers,
Therefore rejoice, rejoice with a joyful noise and with fire.
Therefore rejoice with a joyful noise and with fire.
Be praised, praised with a joyful noise, with fire.
Be thou praised, oh King of the world.
Be thou praised, oh King of the world.
Die Gemeinde Er wird die Heiden bekehren,
Er wird die Heiden bekehren,
Drum lobet ihn, lobet ihn!
Allelujah. usw.
The Community He will convert the unbelievers,
He will convert the unbelievers,
Therefore praise him, praise him!
Alleluia!, etc.
Chor I & II Er wird die Heiden bekehren,
Drum jubelt mit Klang und mit Feuer.
Drum jubelt mit Klang und mit Feuer.
O lobet ihn, lobet ihn!
Allelujah. usw.
Choir I & II He will convert the unbelievers,
Therefore rejoice with a joyful noise and with fire.
Therefore rejoice with a joyful noise and with fire.
Oh praise him, praise him!
Alleluia!, etc.
Da, auf dem Höhepunkt der Verzückung, donnern Schläge
gegen die Tür des Bethauses. Die Vision verlischt mit
einem Mal
At the ecstatic climax, thunderous crashes on the door of the
House of Prayer. The vision disappears suddenly. All lights for
the visionary chorus levels are extinguished
EPILOGUE
EPILOGUE: IN THE HOUSE OF PRAYER
Der Wächter Wahnsinnige! Keinen Laut! Kein Licht!
Schatten schleichen heran!
Versteckt euch!
The Watchman Madmen! Not a sound! No light!
Shadows are creeping up on us!
Hide yourselves!
Dunkelheit. Die Kerzen sind ausgeblasen. Die Gemeinde verschwindet fast lautlos. Nur der Rabbi bleibt vor seinem
Pult,von einem Kerzenstumpf beleuchtet
Darkness. The candles are blown out. The community disappears with hardly a sound. The Rabbi remains at his lectern, lit
by one guttering candle
Der Dreizehnjährige (nimmt die Hand des Vaters)
The Thirteen-Year-Old (taking the hand of his father,
The Estranged One)
Komm, mein Vater!
Wir wollen uns nicht verstecken.
Wir wollen …
… bei unserem Lehrer ausharren!
Come, my father!
We do not wish to hide ourselves,
We wish …
…to remain steadfast beside our teacher.
Der Rabbi Gelobt seist du, Herr.
The Rabbi Praise be to Thee, Lord.
Text by Franz Werfel (1890-1945) © S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt
Translation © 1998 Gillian Ward and David Drew
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Kurt Weill, photographed in 1930 with his wife, Lotte Lenya, the Austrian singer and actress—who sang the premieres of many of Weill’s works.
They were first married in 1926, divorced in 1933, and then remarried in 1937 in New York. 19
Every text I set looks entirely different once it’s been swept through my music.
—Kurt Weill
68