arts & culture
Jewish Composer to Debut Opera
at Fringe Festival
W Courtesy of Misha Dutka
SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
hen the Th eresienstadt
Ghetto was established in
1941, it was a way station
for Jews to be sent to extermination
camps. By 1944, however, the ghetto was
home to thousands of Jewish artists and
scholars, an oasis of rich cultural life in
a desert of death and suff ering.

Th e convening of so many Jewish
artists was not a coincidence but rather
a propaganda tool. In preparation for
the arrival of the Red Cross, the Nazis
“beautifi ed” the ghetto, and the works
of the artists were put on full display as
a ruse for the allied forces.

While the Nazis exploited the Jewish
creatives, the Jewish creatives were
using their craft and talents to rally and
resist. Upon the arrival of the Red Cross
to Th eresienstadt in 1944, a group of
Jews performed the Opera “Brundibár,”
composed by Czech Jew Hans Krása,
which mocked the Nazis in its libretto.

Th e opera became a symbol of Jewish
resilience. Almost 80 years aft er its Th eresienstadt
performance, “Brundibár” serves
as the inspiration for Bucks County
composer and librettist Misha Dutka’s
“Liebovar” or “Th e Little Blind Girl,”
an opera similarly about the resilience
of the Jewish artists and children of
the Th eresienstadt Ghetto. Th e opera’s
third act, performed by the Delaware
Valley Opera Co., will premiere at the
Philadelphia Fringe Festival on Sept. 16.

Like the story it was inspired by,
“Liebovar” takes place in Th eresienstadt,
where a group of Jews learns they will
be sent to their death in Auschwitz. As a
last-gasp eff ort to save themselves, they
decide to put on an opera to woo their
Nazi oppressors. Th e opera’s third act is
the standalone opera-within-the-opera, a
child-friendly performance rich with fan-
tasy and the opera’s eponymous character.

Th e children’s opera-within-an-opera
is a story of a medieval village where all
but one child has mysteriously disap-
peared: a little blind girl. Th e girl is sent
into the forest to search for the missing
children, where she encounters animals
and an ogre. Th ough a standalone per-
formance meant for an audience of chil-
Misha Dutka is the Jewish
composer and librettist behind
“Liebovar” or “The Little Blind Girl.”
dren, the opera-within-the-opera makes
veiled references to the Jewish prisoner’s
greater plight in Th eresienstadt, just as
“Brundibár” mocked the Nazi audience
for which it was performed.

“Why not write an opera about
Th eresienstadt, about the prisoners of
Th eresienstadt, who learned they’re
going to be sent to Auschwitz, and
they decide to fi ght back with the only
weapon at their disposal, which is
opera,” Dutka said.

A composer and librettist for decades
and Delaware Valley Opera Co. mem-
ber and board of directors member for
the past fi ve years, Dutka is only just
dipping his toes into working on Jewish-
themed pieces.

Th ough Dutka has written children’s
operas based on Chasidic tales, they
never dealt with explicitly Jewish char-
acters or culture. Several years ago,
Dutka took one of his Chasidic-inspired
operas to Beth Sholom Congregation’s
Hazzan David Tilman, and Tilman
pushed Dutka to pursue more Jewish
content. “It feels a little bit more personal ... it
took a long time,” Dutka said.

Dutka was used to writing an opera’s
compositions, its music, but not its
librettos, lyrics and narrative. For
“Liebovar,” Dutka had to start from
scratch, both writing the opera’s libretto
and its compositions. As Dutka noticed
growing antisemitism, it pushed him to
continue work on his libretto.

“I really liked my story and thought
it was a story that deserves to be told,”
Dutka said. “Over the years, if I may,
I’ve seen more antisemitism; I’ve seen
Jews the targets for covert and overt
hatred.” Th e opera company’s upcoming per-
formance of “Leibovar” is not only a
way to expose a broader audience to
Jewish-themed opera, which takes up
little space in the art form’s greater
canon, but it also provides an accessi-
ble moment for audiences to become
acquainted with opera.

Th e company was founded in 1979
to provide opportunities for emerging
artists to study and perform the dif-
ferent parts of opera, as well as to give
audiences the chance to watch aff ord-
able opera.

“Opera encompasses all of the art
forms into one,” company President
Sandra Day said. “It’s the only art form
that does that. It’s an amazing genre for
people to see everything. Th ere’s dance;
there’s art; there’s a story; there’s drama;
there’s music. I mean, it’s everything,
and I think that should be one of the
major draws.”
With a family-friendly opera in
English, Dutka hopes “Liebovar”’s per-
formance at the Fringe Festival will
show the medium’s appeal to a broader
audience. “When we have a concept, a powerful
concept, expressed to us in both words
and music, it hits our consciousness,”
Dutka said. “It hits our unconscious;
it hits us on an emotional level, much
more powerfully than just hearing
notes, hearing music, hearing a sym-
phony or watching a play.”
For more information about the per-
formance, visit FringeArts.com/66372. JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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