Two Opera Scenes from the Lodz Ghetto

1. At the Clothing Department (3:00); 2. To Get a Ration (9:00) - vocal soloists & piano or chamber ensemble (cl, bn, tpt, tbn, perc, vln, vc) with live or prerecorded crowd noise - 2021, 2024. The libretto is comprised of the insightful observations of a young Jewish boy—Abraham “Abramek” Koplowicz—who was trapped by the Nazis in the Lodz ghetto and who later died in Auschwitz. The libretto appears before each scene in the scores.

This may be a relatively brief piece, but it is a major one for me and posthumously for the author. I am fortunate to be the only person given blanket gratis permission to set the words of Abraham Koplowicz to music. He composed a book of poetry, plays, and artwork while imprisoned in the Lodz Ghetto before perishing later in Auschwitz before he could become a Bar Mitzvah. The contents of that book are quite good, sophisticated for his age. Abraham's late half-brother, Eliezer Grynfeld—who found the book in the 1990s—and I eventually became good friends. The Pope once kissed Eliezer's hand. That is how highly regarded this collection is and, by some stroke of luck or fate, I have got exclusive musical rights to the book until it enters the public domain. In my settings of AT THE CLOTHING DEPARTMENT and TO GET A RATION, I combine the musical language of Schoenberg's A SURVIVOR FROM WARSAW very nearly with the instrumentation of Stravinsky's A SOLDIER'S TALE - only the percussion instruments differ. The musical language of these brief opera scenes is appropriately terse, very much in keeping with the oppressiveness of imprisonment. Please have a look and a listen. Thank you for your consideration. ---

Words originally in Polish by Abraham (“Abramek”) Koplowicz (b. 1930, Lodz, Poland, d. 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau) Translation by Sarah Lawson and Ma?gorzata Koraszewska Adapted by Stanley M. Hoffman Translation by Sarah Lawson and Ma?gorzata Koraszewska. ? Copyright 1993 by Eliezer Grynfeld. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Eliezer Grynfeld. Adapted by permission of Sarah Lawson and Ma?gorzata Koraszewska. Libretto by Stanley M. Hoffman. Music by Stanley M. Hoffman. NotePerfomer 4 Audio and Scrolling Score Videos Seeking Live Performances Music: ? Copyright 2021, 2024 by Stanley M. Hoffman. www(dot)stanleymhoffman(dot)com All rights reserved.

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