The Atlanta Opera and community partner The Temple present “Identity & Conflict,” a concert and panel discussion leading up to Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, on Wednesday, May 1, 20024 at 6:30 pm. The evening features a performance of Another Sunrise for soprano and chamber ensemble by Jake Heggie, composer, and Gene Scheer, librettist. Esther Tonea is the soloist. Ms. Tonea is a frequent collaborator with the composer of the work, Jake Heggie, and is a 2022 winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition.

The performance will be followed by a community discussion on the topic of identity, personal choices, and social pressures – both historical and current. Radio host Lois Reitzes moderates and panel members include Rabbi Peter Berg, Tomer Zvulun (The Atlanta Opera’s Carl W. Knobloch, Jr General & Artistic Director), and librettist Gene Scheer. The event is made possible with support from the Douglas J. Hertz Family Foundation.

"This year's commemoration of Yom HaShoah is particularly poignant in the face of rising antisemitism, a hatred that has always brewed under the surface of society through the ages and has now bubbled over in the wake of the October 7th attack," says Cantor Tracey Scher of The Temple, the Opera's partner in this production. "This shared event will help us understand through the lens of a one-act opera and conversation, the stark reminder that the holocaust is not a distant memory and the enormous impact that hatred has on marginalized societies."

WHAT: Identity & Conflict: An evening of music and reflection
               Another Sunrise by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer
               Community Conversation
               Post-event dessert reception

WHEN:  Wednesday, May 1, 2024 at 6:30 pm

WHERE:  The Temple, 1589 Peachtree St, NE, Atlanta

TICKETS:  $25; ($18 for Temple members)
Available at https://www.the-temple/opera

Another Sunrise is a 30-minute work based on the life of Krystyna Zywulska during the Nazi occupation of Poland. With her mother, Zywulska walked out of the Warsaw ghetto in broad daylight in 1942 and joined the Polish resistance. While effectively denying her Jewish identity, she was captured and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau where she continued her resistance efforts. Composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer set the work in the 1960s when Zywulska is reflecting on her lost identity and struggling to define her future.

The Atlanta Opera presents this work in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls during the Opera’s mainstage performances of Die Walküre by Richard Wager (a controversial anti-Semite whose works are effectively banned in Israel to this day). The community conversation explores the impact influential individuals and artists have on society, both positive and negative, including Wagner.

In addition to The Temple, other community partners in presenting this event include The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta and The Breman Museum.