The Diary of Anne Frank Programme by Opera Theatre Company

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Grigory

Frid the diary of

Anne Frank

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Grigory

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Frid the diary of

Anne Frank Touring: 10 and 11 Sept Abbey on Peacock Stage Dublin 8pm Booking: 01 87 87 222 www.abbeytheatre.ie 14 Sept Marketplace Theatre Armagh 8pm Booking: 028 3752 1821 www.marketplacearmagh.com 17 Sept Droichead Arts Centre Drogheda 8pm Booking: 041 983 3946 www.droichead.com 18 Sept Solstice Arts Centre Navan 8pm Booking: 046 909 2300 www.solsticeartscentre.ie 21 Sept Theatre Royal Waterford 8pm Booking: 051 874 402 www.theatreroyal.ie 23 Sept Watergate Theatre Kilkenny 8pm Booking: 056 776 1674 www.watergatetheatre.com 25 Sept Riverbank Arts Centre Newbridge 8pm Booking: 045 448 327 www.riverbank.ie 28 Sept Roscommon Arts Centre Roscommon 8pm Booking: 090 6625 824 www.roscommonartscentre.ie 02 Oct Siamsa Tíre Tralee 8pm Booking: 066 712 3055 www.siamsatire.com 05 Oct Mermaid Arts Centre Bray 8pm Booking: 01 272 4030 www.mermaidartscentre.ie 07 Oct Town Hall Theatre Galway 8pm Booking: 091 569 777 www.tht.ie 09 Oct Civic Theatre Tallaght 8pm Booking: 01 462 7477 www.civictheatre.ie Tickets from €15-30 | £12-15 Online booking fee may apply

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Welcome Message Ladies and Gentlemen. Good evening and welcome. This is an evening of premieres and finales. It is the Irish & UK premiere of this amazing mono drama The Diary of Anne Frank, OTC’s first visit to the Peacock Theatre, our esteemed co-director Ingrid Craigie’s first, but hopefully not last, sojourn into opera and our very talented soprano Ani Maldjian’s debut on the Irish stage. However it is also Opera Theatre Company’s final production. As most opera lovers in the country are now aware, Opera Theatre Company, along with Opera Ireland will close its doors at the end of this year and the newly formed Irish National Opera will take centre stage. Having been associated with OTC since its inception, both as a performing artist, board member and finally as Chair of the Board, I cannot but feel a heaviness in my heart as the final months of 2010 draw near and we have to bid farewell to our opera company, yours and mine, on the eve of its twenty fifth anniversary year. Over the years OTC has worked with many people and organisations and we are indebted to them all. We have been ably supported by the Arts Councils in Dublin and Belfast, have enjoyed wonderful partnerships with different organisations and have benefited enormously from the invaluable generosity and expertise of our various board members since the formation of the company. The dedication, pursuit of excellence and commitment of our artistic directors, chief executives and our wonderful staff members throughout the years have been responsible for bringing the company to where it stands today as Ireland’s national touring opera company.

Virginia Kerr Chairperson

However, it is to you, our patrons, friends and audience members to whom we are most deeply indebted. Your unfailing support, encouragement and commitment have secured a special place for Opera Theatre Company in the operatic history of our country and in the hearts of all lovers of this unique art form. I am confident that opera in Ireland is entering a new and exciting phase and am sure the wonderful work of Opera Theatre Company over the past twenty four years will be carried forward. The new company aims to produce work at every scale to the highest artistic standards, reaching as wide an audience as possible, thus safeguarding and expanding upon the remarkable accomplishments of OTC and ensuring the endurance of its legacy. Thank you and enjoy the performance.

Virginia Kerr Chairperson

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От автора Впервые я прочитал “Дневник Анны Франк” в 1960 г. Я был потрясен. Но в то время мысль воспользоваться “Дневником“ как основой музыкального произведения не возникла у меня. Лишь вновь перечитав его позднее, я понял, что в моих руках находится огромной силы документ, почти готовый для музыкального воплощения. Я тут же принялся за работу над либретто. Наиболее ценным для меня было то, что текст “Дневника” является подлинным – написанным девочкой-подростком. Восемь человек, в течение 2 лет скрывающиеся от нацистов на чердаке дома в центре Амстердама, – явление само по себе уникальное. Но то, что 13-летняя девочка вела дневник, ставший документом эпохи, придает этой человеческой драме черты высокой трагедии. В либретто я полностью сохранил подлинный текст “Дневника”. Но 250 страниц книги доложен был сжать до 10-12, обладающих драматургией, сюжетом, раскрывающим внутренний мир Анны. В течение лета 1960 г. мною был завершен клавир, вскоре завершена партитура. Я отказался от традиционного симфонического оркестра. Моноопера – по существу, монолог Анны. Все события, о которых она рассказывает, – драма, происходящая в ее душе. Я хотел, чтобы сопровождением пению являлся большой инструментальный ансамбль с солирующими инструментами. Так как многие театры в небольших городах не располагают симфоническим оркестром, мною впоследствии была сделана версия для 9 музыкантов. Однажды в Нюрнберге после спектакля на одной из встреч со зрителями мне задали вопрос: случаен ли выбор мною сюжета – судьба Анны Франк. Когда я писал монооперу, я об этом не думал. Но после заданного вопроса понял, что выбор мною темы сочинения не случаен. Во время 2-й мировой войны я 4 года солдатом пробыл на фронте. Прошел путь от разрушенного немцами Клина – усадьбы под Москвой, где когда-то жил и творил Чайковский, до Кенигсберга. В сожженных деревнях, городах я с особой болью встречал детей, видел их сиротство, голод, отчаяние. Расизм, насилие, антисемитизм не были для меня отвлеченными понятиями. Очевидно, подсознательно все это повлияло на мое эмоциональное восприятие судьбы Анны Франк. В моем творчестве моноопера сыграла значительную роль: она стимулировала создание мною нескольких крупных вокальных сочинений. Это вокально-инструментальный цикл “Поэзия” на стихи Федерико Гарсии Лорки, а в 1975 г. я написал вторую монооперу “Письма Ван Гога” для баритона и инструментального ансамбля. В основе монооперы [также на собственное либретто] – подлинные письма Винсента Ван Гога к брату Тео. В выборе данного сюжета сказалось не только мое увлечение творчеством Ван Гога, но и начало [мне шел уже шестой десяток лет] моих занятий масляной живописью. “Дневник Анны Франк” исполнялся во многих городах России, США, с 1993 г. постоянно ставится в театрах Германии. Пожалуй, лучшая постановка осуществлена Венской оперой. Премьера состоялась в Вене 5 мая 1998 г. в здании Парламента в годовщину освобождения нацистского концлагеря Маутхаузена, в присутствии уцелевших узников концлагеря, Президента и Правительства Австрии. В Ирландии, где я никогда не был, моя моноопера прозвучит впервые. К сожалению, в силу своего возраста я лишен возможности присутствовать на спектакле. Могу лишь принести сердечную благодарность всем, кто сделал возможным данное исполнение. Григорий Фрид, композитор. Москва, август 2010 г.

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From the Composer I had first read The Diary of Anne Frank in 1960. I was dazzled. The thought of using The Diary as the basis for a musical composition did not occur to me then. Only upon a second reading did I understand that I was holding a masterpiece in my hands, one almost ready for musical evocation. I immediately got down to working on the libretto. The most significant thing for me was that The Diary is a true story written by a teenage girl. The story of eight people spending 2 years hiding from the Nazis in the annexe of an apartment block in the centre of Amsterdam is unique. The idea that a 13 year old girl kept a diary, which became a chronicle of the era, adds poignancy and pathos to the unfolding human tragedy. I have fully preserved the original text of The Diary in my libretto. But I had to compress a 250-page book into 10-12 pages, carrying in them both the drama and the plot revealing Anne’s inner world. During the summer of 1969, I had finished with the piano part, and the full score followed shortly. I refused a traditional symphony orchestra. The composition is essentially a mono-opera, Anne’s monologue. The events in her narration are imbued with the drama of her soul. I wanted the singing to be accompanied by a large instrumental ensemble, with solo instruments. Since many theatres in smaller cities and towns would not have had a symphony orchestra, I tailored a version of the compostition for 9 musicians. Once, in Nuremberg, I met with the audience after the performance and they asked me why I had based my plot on the life of Anne Frank. While I was composing the mono-opera I was not considering my reasons. However the question got me thinking and I began to understand that my choice had not been a random one. During World War II, I spent 4 years at the front line as a soldier. We made our way from Klin – a manor near Moscow, once Tchaikovsky’s homeland and studio, which had been destroyed by the Germans, to Koenigsberg. I saw villages and cities burnt to ashes. My heart was broken when I saw little orphans, their hunger and their despair. Racism, violence and anti-Semitism were not just bare words for me. It would appear that these events echoed in my subconscious and led me inevitably towards the story of Anne Frank’s life. This mono-opera had an important role in my creative work. It inspired several major vocal compositions. Firstly Poetry, a cycle for voice and chamber ensemble to poems by Federico García Lorca; secondly another mono-opera composed in 1975, this time for baritone and chamber ensemble, The Letters of Van Gogh. Again I wrote the libretto, this time based on the original letters of Vincent Van Gogh to his brother Theo. My choice of the plot resulted not only from my interest in Van Gogh’s artwork, but also my first steps in oil painting [I was on the wrong side of 60 then!]. The Diary of Anne Frank has been performed at different venues in Russia and the US. It has been repeatedly performed in German theatres since 1993. I believe the most brilliant performance took place at Vienna Opera House. The first night was on May 5th, 1998. The venue was the Parliament building and it coincided with the anniversary of the liberation of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. The surviving prisoners of the concentration camp, the President and the Austrian government were all present. This will be the first time that my mono-opera will be performed in Ireland, a country I have never visited. Unfortunately, due to my age I cannot be present. However what I can do is express my cordial thanks to those who have made this performance possible. Grigory Frid, Composer. Moscow, August 2010. Translated into English by Tatiana Kovalenko

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Synopsis for Anne Frank 1. Introduction 2. Birthday Anne wakes early and is delighted to receive her diary amongst her pile of presents

10. Recollection Anne feels like the happy child she was before the invasion is a different Anne. 11. Dream Anne has a nightmare. Her friend Liess appears to her, as a skeleton dressed in rags and asks Anne not to abandon her.

3. School It is the 21st June 1942. The teachers are meeting to decide on student results. Anne’s maths teacher, Mr Kepler is often infuriated by her talking in class and calls her Mamselle Duckling.

4. Conversation with Father Anne’s Father is not allowed to work. He tells her about the ‘Hiding Place’.

5. Notice from the Gestapo It is the 8th July. Anne’s Father has opened a notice from the Gestapo that means the family will be transported to a concentration camp. Plans are made for the Van Daan family to join the Franks. There will be 7 people in all in the secret annexe.

6. Hiding Place It is Saturday the eleventh of July. The Franks are in the ‘Hiding Place’. Anne likes hearing the sound of the bell-tower. She gets frightened of the silence at night. She thinks they will never be free and they will be found and shot.

12. Interlude 13. Duet of the Van Daans Anne describes a squabble between Mr and Mrs van Daan.

14. Robbers It is 4th August 1943. There is a robber in the warehouse below the secret annexe. 15. Recitative Peter and Anne hold hands while looking out the window in the attic. They can see the trees, the sunlight and the blue sky. 16. I Think of Peter... Anne is falling in love with Peter. 17. At the Russian Front The Russians are winning and hopes are high for the Allies.

7. By the Window Anne’s window opens just enough to let her see people go hurrying by on the street below.

8. I was Told It is the 16th October. Anne hears on the radio that diaries and novels will be published after the war. She decide to write a novel called “My Hiding Place’. The inhabitants of the annexe are frightened as a worker in the warehouse below them suspects they are hiding above. Anne thinks noone will believe her story of how they are forced to live.

18. Round-Up The Gestapo are in the warehouse below and stand right beside the bookcase that covers the entrance to the secret annexe. 19. Solitude Anne finds it hard to cope as ideals and dreams are destroyed by reality.

20. Passacaglia As war threatens to destroy them, all Anne can do is pray ‘Adonai Eloheinu’ – “Lord, our God – make our way open”

9. Despair Anne feels as if she is a captive, voiceless songbird. 21. Finale Anne’s favourite place is the roof where nature makes her life whole. A joyous heart will falter only for a moment and hope will remain the heart’s strength.

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Company Message Welcome to Opera Theatre Company’s production of Grigory Frid’s The Diary of Anne Frank. As Ireland’s touring opera company we have existed for the past 24 years to work collaboratively with the best individuals and companies to produce, perform and tour opera of the highest quality. Our ambitions are simple: to create work that excites, entertains and challenges audiences at home and abroad and which engenders a sense of pride across Ireland, North and South. Opera Theatre Company’s production of The Diary of Anne Frank thoroughly fulfills this ambition. It is fitting that Opera Theatre Company’s final production is not only an Irish & UK premiere, but is also the first time that any piece by Russian composer Grigory Frid will be performed in Ireland. This is in keeping with Opera Theatre Company’s innovative nature and its adventurous outlook. For our last production we have brought together a wonderful production team: Co-directors Ingrid Craigie and Annilese Miskimmon, Conductor Andrew Synnott, Designer Nicky Shaw and Lighting Designer Tina MacHugh – supporters of Opera Theatre Company will be familiar with their great work. As you are no doubt aware there is a lot of change on the horizon for the arts in general – not just for opera. We are a proud participant in, and supporter of, the National Campaign for the Arts, which is working to inform our politicians and the public that the arts are central to Ireland’s economy, reputation and daily life. If you value artists and creativity as much as we do, log onto www.ncfa.ie and take action to support the campaign.

Kirsty Harris Chief Executive

Tonight’s production could not have been created without the support of the Arts Council Ireland, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and all of our patrons, friends and sponsors. I also wish to thank you, the audience, and above all, I hope you enjoy the show. Kirsty Harris Chief Executive

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Artistic Director’s Note Anne Frank started writing her diary on her 13th birthday – the 12th June 1942. By the 6th July 1942 she and her mother, father and sister Margot were in hiding along with her father’s colleague Hermann van Pels, his wife and his son Peter [Anne renamed them the van Daans in the diary]. They were joined on 17th November by a dentist called Fritz Pfeffer [Albert Dussel in the diary]. On the 4th August 1944, sometime between 10 and 10.30am the 8 inhabitants of the secret annexe were arrested along with 2 of the 4 Dutch citizen helpers who had kept them hidden for 2 long years. It has never been established who betrayed the group. By the end of the war, only one of the annexe’s group of 8 was alive – Anne’s father, Otto Frank. Anne herself had been taken to Bergen-Belsen via Auschwitz where first Margot and then she died of typhus in late February or early March of 1945. British Troops liberated the camp on the 12 April. Miep Gies, a secretary working for Otto Frank’s firm and one of the helpers, managed to rescue Anne’s diary and other notebooks after the Gestapo had searched the annexe. Otto Frank had survived Auschwitz and though he knew that his wife was dead, he still had hope of finding his daughters alive. On returning to Amsterdam in June 1945 he discovered that they were both dead. Miep returned Anne’s papers to him with the words “Here is your daughter Anne’s legacy to you”. In his memoir he says of reading the diary – ‘For me, it was a revelation. Here was revealed a completely different Anne to the child I had lost. I had no idea of the depth of her thoughts and feelings”.

Annilese Miskimmon Artistic Director

That comment has at its heart the uniqueness of Anne’s writing. Despite the fact she was living in very difficult circumstances under the threat of the most horrific of deaths, she was having a ‘normal’ teenage experience. It is a great credit to her mother and father that she was as preoccupied with subjects such as her changing body, her burgeoning relationship with the young Peter, her career aspirations and her disenchantment with her parents’ marriage and in particular her mother. These subjects are as vivaciously and truthfully discussed as the fears she has of being discovered, her nightmares of her dying friends and her awareness that she was living a very difficult life with perhaps no hope of freedom. Anne writes to her diary as if it was a friend called Kitty and decides very early on that it will be one of those published after the war. She clearly has talent as a writer and the service she has done the millions of victims of the Second World War Holocaust by personalising her particular experience is immeasurable. Reading the diary from the relative safety of 21st Century Ireland it is easy to fall in love with this dramatic, intelligent, fun-loving girl. It is also impossible not to wish for the happy ending that you know doesn’t happen. It is the same impulse that Ian McEwan exploits in his novel Atonement, but writ large in reality, rather than on the canvas of fiction. It must also be acknowledged that as Anne’s diary is interrupted, we are completely spared the horror of the eight months after her betrayal that ended in a terrible death in a horrific place. It is not redemptive to

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know that, according to the two school friends she was reunited with in Bergen-Belsen, shortly before her death she had lost all hope and had wished for death, as she could not believe that her parents were alive. But a person’s life is always defined by more than the end of their journey, especially when that end is an unmarked mass grave in a concentration camp. It is always a real joy for an opera director to have the privilege of presenting a piece by a living composer, especially a national and UK premiere. Grigory Frid’s mono-opera is a powerful, generous and significant composition, invested with the complex history that he himself has lived through. It is filled with the same hope and wit that Anne Frank herself embodied and as such is both a beautiful homage to her memory and a major achievement in its own right. Ingrid Craigie’s artistic relationship with OTC continues after her success in our Schumann lieder project Clara and Robert. It is wonderful to have her input as one of the country’s major acting talents in the context of this piece as a dramatic monologue, a form that she herself is a master of as illustrated by her recent performances of Brian Friel’s Faith Healer at The Gate Theatre, Dublin. We welcome the wonderful American singer Ani Maldjian in her Irish and UK debut as Anne. Ani’s background as a first generation Armenian-American has informed her own approach to this piece as the Armenian genocide that began in 1915 directly affected her own family. As many of us do, I read Anne’s diary when I was a teenager myself. This project has given me the opportunity to re-read it and I have enjoyed it in a totally new, and richer way. Although we cannot change her fate we can join the millions who have read her writing and granted her the attention and appreciation that she desired and deserves.

“I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death! And that’s why I’m so grateful to God for having given me this gift, which I can use to develop myself and to express all that’s inside me! When I write I can shake off all my cares. My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived! But, and that’s a big question, will I ever be able to write Annilese Miskimmon Artistic Director something great?” Wednesday, 5 April 1944 09

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Grigory

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Frid the diary of

Anne Frank

The Diary of Anne Frank in one act by Grigory Frid. Libretto: G. Frid after The Diary of Anne Frank English adaptation: James Briscoe and Alla Gomon-Abramovich. Edition by Hans Sikorski Music Publishers. The Diary of Anne Frank was first performed with Grigory Frid on the piano in 1972. The first full production took place in Kislovodsk in 1977.

Cast

Musicians

Anne Frank Ani Maldjian Conductor / Piano Andrew Synnott Violin Bogdan Sofei

Artistic Team

Cello Adrian Mantu Double Bass Paul Stephens

Conductor Andrew Synnott

Trumpet Lee Butler

Co-Director Annilese Miskimmon

Percussion Noel Eccles

Co-Director Ingrid Craigie

Clarinet Paul Roe

Design Nicky Shaw

Flute Vourneen Ryan

Lighting Design Tina MacHugh

Bassoon Cliona Warren

Repetiteur Aoife Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Sullivan Piano only performances 17 / 25/ 28 Sept Pianist Mark Knoop 10

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Production Team Production Manager Michael Kyle Company Stage Manager Diarmuid O’Quigley Assistant Stage Manager Kate Moylan Production LX Allan McGuinness Costume Supervisor Ann Conmy

Thank you: The Russian Embassy, The Honorary Consul – Republic of Armenia in Ireland, Vahe & Regina Bogossian, Ronald and Ana Kelly, and Harutyun Shahumyan, Laurence Babahekian, Costume Mill, Abbey Stores, Jerry O’Callaghan, Will Harris, Alexey Sukharev, Vladimir Kabakov. 11

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Music Note

Anne Frank’s diary is surely one of the best-known documentations of Jewish life under Nazi repression. It narrates the events from her thirteenth birthday in 1942 [the diary was a birthday present and Anne’s joy at receiving it forms the beginning of Frid’s opera] to just before the Frank family’s arrest two years later. Her father Otto Frank had moved from Frankfurt [where Anne was born] to Amsterdam in 1933 to escape the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany. He had been director of the Amsterdam branch of the Opekta company [specialising in fruit pectin] until he was forced to relinquish it by laws imposed under Nazi occupation and transferred ownership to two of his colleagues. A hiding place was constructed at the rear of the Opekta offices and some of Frank’s most trusted employees provided for the Frank and van Pels families during their two years in hiding. In August 1944 they were denounced and arrested. Anne’s mother Edith Frank died in the Auschwitz concentration camp; Anne and her sister Margot died in a typhus epidemic in the Bergen-Belsen camp a few weeks before its liberation by British troops in April 1945. Otto Frank survived internment in Auschwitz and lived until 1980 – he received his daughter’s chronicle after the war from Miep Gies, one of the employees who had helped keep the family in hiding and who rescued the diary from the ransacked Opekta office after the family’s arrest. In Otto Frank’s words: “…in the normal family relationship, it is the child of the famous parent who has

the honor and the burden of continuing the task. In my case the role is reversed”. The Diary of Anne Frank was composed in 1969, contemporary with the last works of Shostakovich, who had also dealt with Jewish subject matter. The 1962 Thirteenth Symphony sets a poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko dealing with the 1941 massacre at Babi Yar [the poem also refers to Anne Frank]; the song-cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry was composed in 1948 and first performed in 1955. [The subject matter of both works caused official ‘difficulties’ – anti-Semitism was of course by no means confined to Nazi Germany]. While Frid’s compositional approach certainly recalls his great contemporary, listeners acquainted with the work of the Swiss composer Frank Martin may perceive similarities in the sound of Frid’s opera, partly in the piano-dominated tang of the compact scoring, partly in the frequent chromatic sideslips of the harmony. The music all proceeds from a central motive: a chromatic ornamentation of a descending perfect fourth, sounded as the very first notes of the opera. [Two chromatically linked perfect fourths, an elaboration of the motive which also occurs frequently in Frid’s opera, also form the central motive of Berg’s 1935 opera Lulu – a more different character to share the same music can hardly be imagined].

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Frid employs simple, syllabic word-setting – excessively ornate writing would hardly be a suitable match for Anne Frank’s childish voice. Part of the reason for the impact of the Anne Frank diary is the very simplicity of her reactions, bringing a situation to life which for the vast majority of readers is – thankfully – surely unimaginable. Indeed Frid foregoes not only histrionics but the use of a full orchestra, choosing instead a chamber setup in keeping with the intimacy of the subject. Although everything is recounted from Anne Frank’s perspective, a variety of characters are brought to life in her narration: her schoolmaster, her friend Liess in a grim dream apparition, a dispute in the ‘van Daan’ family [Anne Frank’s pseudonym for the van Pels family], her affection for the van Daans’ son Peter. Also hinted at are more sinister forces never directly seen. There is not only the continuous background presence of the Gestapo: even such a minor figure as a burglar in the Opekta warehouse becomes a fearsome figure simply because of the ever-present possibility of denunciation. All these figures are sharply characterised; the scenes are dramatically self-contained even though the music plays for the most part continuously. Frid occasionally allows broader musical forms to develop, in particular a passacaglia on a 12-note theme after the Gestapo’s first fruitless search of the warehouse. The obsessive repetition of the passacaglia form [a favourite also of Shostakovich] makes it an apt choice to evoke the inexorable approach of danger. Nonetheless Frid steers clear of arcane musical structures: his intention is ultimately to provide a musical support for Anne Frank’s voice. Carl Rosman Köln, August 2010 www.carlrosman.com

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Andrew Synnott Conductor Andrew Synnott is a Dublin based composer, arranger, conductor and pianist. Conducting work includes Xerxes, Acis and Galatea, The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, Life on the Moon, Orfeo and Bastien and Bastienne [OTC], La traviata, Carmen, Die Fledermaus [Co-Opera]. He has arranged and been Musical Director for O What A Lovely War, 13 Company, Into the Woods, Merrily We Roll Along and Sweeney Todd [Derby Playhouse]. His arrangements of La bohème and The Magic Flute have toured extensively in Ireland and the UK. He has also conducted at the Buxton Opera Festival and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. In 1997 he co-founded the Crash Ensemble, a new music performance ensemble specialising in multimedia music performances. In 2006 he made his Australian debut as musical director for The Brisbane Festival’s production of Johnno. Andrew has written music for the Abbey Theatre, Panpan Theatre Company, and Irish Modern Dance Theatre, and is currently writing an opera in collaboration with the playwright John Breen.

Annilese Miskimmon Co-Director She has an MA in English Literature from Christ’s College, Cambridge and an MA in Arts Management from London City University at the Barbican. Glyndebourne Festival appointed her Consultant Associate Director from 2002-2005. She has been nominated for Royal Philharmonic Society, Canadian Dora, Guardian Fringe Theatre, Irish Times and Manchester Evening News Theatre awards. Recent projects: Romeo et Juliet [Opera Ireland], Freischutz [Salzburg], Alcina [Buxton Festival Opera], Figaro and Acis and Galatea [OTC], Iolanta [Opera Holland Park], Il re pastore, [Garsington Opera], Barbe-Bleu [Buxton Festival; The National Opera Studio Showcase at Hackney Empire, Così fan tutte and L’elisir d’amore [Opera Holland Park], Poppea [OTC, Buxton and Aldeburgh Festivals], Apollo and Hyacinthus [OTC, COC, Les Azuriales Festival, Britten Theatre, Tolentino Festival, Italy] and Pelléas et Melisande [OTC]. Fidelio [OTC, Kilmainham Gaol] and La Finta Giardiniera [RIAM]. Other work includes: Osud [BBC Proms] The Vanishing Bridegroom [BBC SO/Barbican] Ca Ira for Roger Waters of Pink Floyd in Rome; Orlando [OTC], Rinaldo [RSAM], La bohème [ETO], Semele [BYO], Vera of Las Vegas [OTC], Carmen in New Zealand, Shadowtracks [W11 Opera] and The Queen who Didn’t Come to Tea by Alexander McCall Smith, [Scottish Chamber Orchestra] and The Vanishing Bridegroom [BBC Symphony Orchestra], La pietra del paragone and Don Pasquale [Stanley Hall Opera], La Cenerentola [OTC], Alexander Goehr’s Arianna University of Cambridge; Endimione Cambridge Classical Opera; Protagonist Royal Palace, BBC Symphony/Andrew Davis; La vida breve [BBC Proms]; 14

Vanessa and John Cage’s Songbooks [BBC SO/Slatkin], Bernstein’s On the Town BBC Concert Orchestra/Paul Daniel and Le nozze di Figaro Beijing Music Conservatory/WNO/British Council. Her La Traviata for Welsh National Opera was the subject of an HTV documentary series.

Ingrid Craigie Co-Director For the Gate Theatre: Arcadia, Faith Healer [Sydney Festival 2009, Edinburgh International Festival 2009, Gate Theatre 2009 and 2010], The Deep Blue Sea, The Recruiting Officer [Best Actress, Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards], The Collection with Harold Pinter, Pinter Festival; Lady Windermere’s Fan, Faith Healer, directed by Jonathan Kent with Ralph Fiennes and Ian McDiarmid [nominated Best Actress Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards]; Play, Beckett Festival, Barbican, London. Ingrid read English at Trinity College Dublin before joining the Abbey company, where many appearances included Our Town, premiere of Talbot’s Box by Thomas Kilroy, premiere of Aristocrats by Brian Friel, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, The Glass Menagerie and the premiere of A Life by Hugh Leonard. Other Theatre credits include Splendour, Boston Marriage, Copenhagen [for all of which she was nominated Best Actress Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards] at the Project; premiere of Crave by Sarah Kane, Edinburgh Festival and Royal Court London; The Weir, Centaur, Montreal; premiere of Hugh Leonard’s Love in the Title, Abbey and San Jose; premiere of Brian Friel’s Wonderful Tennessee, Abbey and Broadway. Narrator: Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, NCH; Narrator: Clara and Robert, Opera Theatre Company. In 2007 she received the Special Tribute Award at the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards and the inaugural Alumni Award from Trinity College Dublin, for her contribution to Irish Theatre. Film and Television include: BAFTA award winning The Ballroom of Romance and Ballykissangel. The Dead directed by John Huston, Da and Circle of Friends.

Mark Knoop Piano Mark Knoop is a pianist and conductor living in London, UK. He studied piano with Stephen McIntyre at the Victorian College of the Arts and in Europe with mentors including Herbert Henck, James Avery and Peter Feuchtwanger. He studied conducting in Melbourne with Robert Rosen. He performs with such groups as plus-minus [London /Brussels], Ensemble Expos [London], ELISION Ensemble [Brisbane], 175 East [Auckland], musikFabrik (Köln], WDR Rundfunkchor Köln, Ensemble Offspring [Sydney] and Ensemble Laboratorium [Europe]. Mark has conducted numerous premieres including Jason Eckardt’s Tongues, Bryn Harrison’s Rise and Repetitions in Extended Time, Erik Ulman’s Thoughts on the Esterhazy Court Uniform.

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He also performed the Australian premieres of Finnissy’s mammoth piano cycle The History of Photography in Sound and Richard Barrett’s Tract. Mark has worked with many respected composers including Richard Barrett, Chris Dench, James Dillon, Michael Finnissy, Helmut Lachenmann, Liza Lim, Thomas Meadowcroft, Matthew Shlomowitz, Erik Ulman, David Young, and many others. Solo works composed for him include Chris Dench’s into the wormworks and the heart’s algorithms [both members of the Phase Portraits’ cycle], Benjamin Marks’ La Chute‚ Chris Newman’s Air Fool Agony Face and Dominik Karski’s Streams Within for piano and ensemble. His recording of the complete piano music of David Lumsdaine [Tall Poppies] was released to critical acclaim in 2009. Recent projects include recordings of Finnissy’s Piano Concerto No 3 with 175 East, and of works by John Cage for the Wergo label.

Nicky Shaw Designer Nicky trained at West Sussex and West Surrey Colleges of Art and Design. For Opera: Iolanta, Opera Holland Park; Medea, National Reisopera, Netherlands Tour [costumes]; The Rape of Lucretia, Il viaggio a Reims, Il prigioniero, Volo di notti and La Cenerentola all for Frankfurt Opera [costumes]; sets for the gala, The World’s Stage, ROH; La Cenerentola, Opera Zuid, Netherlands Tour [costumes]; Macbeth La Monnaie, Brussels [costumes]; For OTC Alcina, Orlando [Irish Tour, Buxton Festival] and The Coronation of Poppea [Buxton and Aldeburgh Festival], The Bartered Bride and Don Giovanni, both for Mid Wales Opera, UK Tours; Songs of Lipo, Phaedra and Savitri, Aldeburgh Festival; The Cunning Little Vixen and Semele, both for BYO, QEH; La rencontre imprévue, Susanna and Così fan tutte, all Guildhall School of Music and Drama. For Theatre: Picasso’s Women, Seoul, Korea; Some People I Know, Bergen, Norway; Dancing Shadows, Seoul, Korea [winner of 5 Korean Musical Awards, including Best Musical]; Picasso’s Women, UK Tour, Hong Kong, Cork and Edinburgh. Festivals; 3 on a Couch, King’s Head Theatre; The Lifeblood and Broken Journey, both for The Hen & Chickens Theatre; Anyroad and Eating Raoul, both for The Bridewell Theatre; Take the Fire, Lyric Studio, Hammersmith; The Power of Darkness, The Orange Tree Theatre; The Revenger’s Tragedy, The Orange Tree Room; La Nuit de Valognes and Woyzeck, both for The Other Place, RSC. For Television: The Score, BBC 2 [studio set and title sequence]; The Empress, Channel 4 [associate set designer to artist Bruce McLean]. Nicky has also worked as a design consultant to fashion designer and businessman Jasper Conran.

Tina MacHugh Lighting Design Previous productions for OTC include Alcina, Pelléas & Mélisande, Orlando, Vera of Las Vegas and Apollo & Hyacinthus [with Classical Opera]. Opera includes Idomeneo with Placido Domingo [LA Opera], Paradise Moscow [Royal Academy of Music], The Magic Flute, La Calisto [Guildhall]; La bohème, Streetcar Named Desire [Opera Ireland], Alcina and Falstaff [ETO], Der Rosenkavalier [Scottish Opera], Idomeneo, Tales of Hoffman [de Vlaamse, Antwerp], Il re pastore [Opera North], Crossing the Sea, The Turn of the Screw [Wilton’s Music Hall] and The Juniper Tree [Munich Biennale/ Almeida Opera]. Theatre includes for the RSC: The Tempest, Love in a Wood, The Comedy of Errors, Henry VI, The Phoenician Women, Shadows and Ghosts [Olivier Award nomination]; For the National Theatre: The Machine Wreckers, Guiding Star and Rutherford and Son [Olivier Award nomination]; Julius Caesar [Guildhall]; The Recruiting Officer, The Alice Trilogy [Abbey, Dublin]; When Harry met Sally [UK tour]; Book of Evidence [Gate, Dublin]; Nixon’s Nixon [West End/Australian tour]; A Doll’s House, Spoonface Steinberg, Mother Courage [West End]; Our Father [Almeida]; Yard Gal, Live Like Pigs [Royal Court] and The Wexford Trilogy [Bush]. Dance includes productions for Houston Ballet, Ballett Kiel, Ballet Basel, National Ballet of Canada, Dutch National Ballet, Arc Dance Company, Geneva Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, DV8, English National Ballet, Rambert Dance Company and Adventures in Motion Pictures.

Ani Maldjian Soprano Ani Maldjian has performed with top companies in the USA, such as Seattle Opera, Long Beach Opera, Atlanta Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera Santa Barbara and Sun Valley Opera. Her repertoire includes over 25 major operatic roles including Clorinda, Nannetta, Lauretta, Cleopatra, Adele, and Despina. She has been described as a “remarkable soprano”, with a voice that is “richly mature and full of lyric nuance”, and her singing “elegant, commanding, brilliant, fresh and strong…definitely a name to watch as she rises through the ranks of young sopranos”. With a great passion and enthusiasm for contemporary music, Ani has performed the roles of Fire/Princess/Nightingale in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortileges, and Princess in Susa’s Transformations. She made USA’s West Coast and South Coast premieres of The Diary of Anne Frank in 2007-2010, with critical acclaim. In addition to earning a Bachelors degree from Cal Arts and a Masters degree from California State University Northridge, she received opera training as a resident of Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival, and OperaWorks. She won 1st Place at the Metropolitan Opera Auditions and sang on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in 2006. Future engagements include a return to Seattle Opera and Long Beach Opera, her debut in Texas, and the Northwest premiere of Anne Frank in Portland. Ani feels honoured to be making her Irish debut as Anne Frank and thanks Ireland for welcoming her into this beautiful country. 15

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Grigory Frid Timeline 1915

Grigory Frid is born

1967

State-sponsored Jewish emigration: 2 million leave the USSR

1917

Russian Revolution

1972

Under Leonid Brezhnev, USSR becomes the world’s second largest economy based around arms manufacture

1918

Czar Nicholas II executed

1979

USSR invades Afghanistan

1985

Mikhail Gorbachev: glasnost & perestroika

1989

November 9: Berlin Wall falls

1991

Boris Yeltsin elected first Russian President

1996

Rise of Russian economic oligarchs: Yeltsin re-elected

1924

Lenin dies

1936-38 Stalin’s Great Purges and Show Trials 1941 1945

Operation Barbarossa: Hitler invades Russia

Soviet Army captures Berlin

1947

Zhdanov purges Soviet musicians

1953

Stalin and the composer Prokofiev die

2000

Vladimir Putin elected President with 53% of the vote

1957

Sputnik 1 leaves Earth’s atmosphere and orbits the planet

2005

Grigory Frid turns 90

1962

Cuban Missile Crisis

2010

Irish & UK premiere of Frid’s The Diary of Anne Frank

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Outreach & Education Anne Frank’s diary has an enduring resonance on many levels: as a coming of age story, as a window opening onto a major historical event, and as an accessible, real-life departure point for the reader to explore the deeper questions of ethics, politics and religion. The Diary of Anne Frank has the additional facet of opera, bringing the composer’s emotional evocation, the directors’ and designer’s interpretation and the singer’s performance to bear on, sustain and reveal the young girl’s words. In this form, The Diary of Anne Frank is also a wonderful piece of contemporary classical music, composed at a crucial time in the development of music. Grigory Frid’s personal experiences and response to Anne Frank’s diary provide an insight to the path from inspiration to composition. OTC has created worksheets to accompany this production, linked to the school curriculum and giving teachers the opportunity to prepare for the performance and to follow through afterwards, in a deeper exploration of the themes revealed in The Diary of Anne Frank as relevant to their particular subject. This is but one form of engagement with audiences, potential audiences, community groups and students of all levels that OTC has undertaken over the past 24 years. Space does not permit a comprehensive review of the company’s commitment to creatively engage with people all across the island of Ireland – and indeed internationally: Opera Theatre Company’s commission of a children’s opera led to Stephen Deasley’s BUG OFF!!!, which achieved national popularity and acclaim and went on to participate in the Smithsonian Folkworks at The Kennedy Centre in May 2007. A truly national touring outreach programme has seen events take place all over Ireland and Northern Ireland. An all-encompassing view of outreach necessarily means engagement with a broad spectrum of society, including but not limited to primary and postprimary schools, expanding to reach youth and community groups, youth theatres, choirs, musical societies, drug rehabilitation groups, women’s groups, older people’s groups and, of course, all opera audiences. OTC has always attracted the very best singers and musicians to work with us on our Outreach & Education projects and has invested in the training of animateurs – OTC’s Outreach projects have always been resourced with a first-string team and are never seen as secondary in importance. We’re very grateful to the talented people we’ve worked with and also to those with whom we have developed partnerships over the years, working with them to create some unique participation opportunities at the Water Music Festival in Carrick-on-Shannon, City of Song Festival in Derry and Culture Night in Belfast and Dublin. We also appreciate all those who’ve participated in our Outreach programmes, especially for taking the time to give us so much positive feedback. As Opera Theatre Company prepares to take its final bow, it can only be hoped that the yet-to-be-formed national opera company continues to make Outreach a priority. 17

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The Young Associate Artists’ Programme [YAAP] Formed in 2004, OTC’s Young Associate Artists’ Programme [YAAP] was and is the only programme of its kind in Ireland. The need for and the popularity of the programme have been obvious since its inception and the progress made and benefit gained by the young singers that have passed through its ranks is remarkable. As the future of a Young Artists’ Programme in Ireland is possibly in doubt, with the creation of Irish National Opera [INO], it is timely to mention the achievements of OTC’s Programme. The singers that have participated in the programme have benefited from the enormous commitment and talent of a huge number of dedicated people but in particular I would like to acknowledge the exceptional commitment of Sean Green, Matt Broom, Brenda Hurley, Ann Murray, Virginia Kerr and Annilese Miskimmon. In the arena of opera singing, Ireland is certainly boxing above its weight. YAA singers are in some of the best opera studios and vocal universities in the world. Past YAA singers have gone on to study or participate in courses and career development in the following places: The Jette Parker Young Artist Programme, Covent Garden [Anna Devin], The Juilliard School, New York [Naomi O’Connell], Bavarian State Opera Young Artists, Munich [Dean Power], Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama [Jamie Rock], The National Opera Studio, London [Maire Flavin], Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Opera Festival [Claudia Boyle – also understudied Patricia Petibon in the title role of Alban Berg’s Lulu this summer] Royal Academy of Music, London [Ross Scanlon, Rachel Kelly, Norah King, Jamie Rock], English National Opera’s Young Singers Programme [Mairead Buicke] and The Glyndebourne Chorus [Raphaela Mangan, Chloe Hinton, Maire Flavin]. Mezzo Soprano, Carolyn Dobbin works regularly with Welsh National Opera and will work with English National Opera and Grange Park Opera in the coming year. OTC has also given the Young Aritsts direct experience by giving them performing experience in professional productions: Acis and Galatea and Bastien and Bastienne were specifically Young Artist productions with all of the roles being taken by young singers including YAA’s Dean Power, Claudia Boyle, Gavan Ring and Andrew Boushell. Recently, Gabriela Istoc played the role of Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro alongside YAA alumnus Martha Bredin who played Cherubino. Daryll Simpson and Martin McAnaney performed in The Coronation of Poppea and Apollo and Hyacinthus. This short list cannot comprehend the acheivements of the YAA Programme but gives insight to the wealth of accomplishment that the Programme has helped to produce. Any new opera company in Ireland must include a Young Singers’ Programme and it would be OTC’s hope that as time progresses this might develop into a fully fledged programme involving waged young singers’ covering roles and indeed playing roles on the opera stage. This would merely bring us in line with the practice of so many of our international counterparts. The young singing talent that is emerging from Ireland is quite extraordinary given the proportionate size of the population and it is something of which the country can be justifiably proud. Dermot O’Callaghan Manager Young Associate Artists’ Programme

Young Associate Artists 2009 – 2010 Gabriela Iştoc Soprano Chloe Hinton Mezzo Soprano

Rachel Kelly Mezzo Soprano Dean Power Tenor Ross Scanlon Tenor

Christopher Cull Baritone Gavan Ring Baritone

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programme coverAnne Frank:programme cover

Grigory

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Frid the diary of

Opera Theatre Company Temple Bar Music Centre | Curved Street | Dublin 2 Telephone: +353 1 679 4962 Email: info@opera.ie Website: www.opera.ie

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Grigory

Frid the diary of

Anne Frank