LIGHT FROM THE DARKNESS

Light from Darkness:

Reflections on My Holocaust Remembrance Opera and Our 2020 World By Thomas B. Yee, DMA

In the first week of December, I entered a hall to make live music for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Though there was no audience, the room’s energy felt electric – whether performer, composer, conductor, or recording engineer, we yearned to make music together again. Nearly nine months to the day after postponing the April 2020 premiere of my Holocaust remembrance opera Eva and the Angel of Death, singers Page Stephens and

Julia Taylor, pianist Q Langman, conductor Jacob

Schnitzer (attending remotely), and I gathered to record musical excerpts and cast interviews under COVIDsafe conditions. The resulting documentary, Ritual and

Remembrance: Reflections on Eva and the Angel of Death explores the artistic resonance and modern-day impact of Eva Mozes Kor’s timely and powerful story. From left: Page Stephens (Eva Mozes Kor), Q Langman (piano), and Julia Taylor (Miriam Mozes); Eva and her twin sister Miriam, joyously reunited after liberation from Auschwitz in the duet, “We Are Free”

Holocaust survivor Eva Mozes Kor and her twin sister Miriam were subjected to sadistic medical experimentation by Josef Mengele in Auschwitz. After their liberation in 1945, the long-term effects of this trauma followed the sisters across the world, resulting in Miriam’s death in 1993 from medical complications related to these experiments. Devastated by the loss, Eva embarked on a search for answers, receiving assistance from an unexpected source – former Nazi doctor Hans Münch – setting Eva on a path towards closure and healing. In 1995, Kor returned to Auschwitz and announced to the world that she personally forgave the Nazis for what had been done to her. Until her death in 2019, Eva was an active Holocaust awareness educator, community leader, and forgiveness advocate.

In countless ways, this documentary thematically resonates with – and responds to – the year 2020. The first half immerses viewers in Eva’s story in her own words, brought to life by performances of crucial scenes from the opera. The second half features powerful and intensely personal interviews with the opera’s cast and creative team, where the theme “light from darkness” emerges as a through-line. Remembering the Holocaust’s atrocities, we as artists respond to injustice with the message “never again.” In the wake of the unjust deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others – and the emboldening of white nationalism in contemporary society – we contemplate the act of Holocaust remembrance as a catalyst and cry for social justice today. Witnessing the increasing cultural resentment and polarization in our world, we speak as human individuals about how our lives have been forever transformed by Eva’s quest for healing. Several of us share poignant accounts of past trauma, and how Eva’s example teaches us that those experiences don’t define who we are today, moving us to empowerment and healing through forgiveness. As Eva said, “Anger is a seed for war. Forgiveness is a seed for peace.” I wholeheartedly believe that now – year 2021 – is the time for healing, and the potential benefits of forgiveness as a catalyst for that healing are

tremendous.

Soprano Julia Taylor (Miriam Mozes)shares about how Eva and the Angel of Death resonates with her life in a heartfelt interview.

Ritual and Remembrance is a reflection on creating art during a global pandemic, remembering the Holocaust, and learning from one survivor’s unique experience. But more pressingly, it reflects on who we are and what we experienced in the unprecedented year 2020. Learn more and view the documentary produced by Density 512, and co-directed by me, Jacob Schnitzer and Farid Zarrinabadi at https://www.density512.org/ reflectionsoneva.