Dear Erich is a jazz opera inspired by 200 newly discovered letters written in Germany between 1938 and 1941 by Herta Rosenthal to her son Erich, the composer’s father. Dear Erich tells a refugee story for our times. How can a family cope as the walls of their nation’s hatred close in around them? For those who escape, what lies ahead?
Erich, a Jewish academic, escaped Nazi Germany to the U.S. shortly before Kristallnacht. The opera tells the story of a family’s dual fates. Erich’s journey to a new life in the new world – his studies, jazz and love – while the situation deteriorates in Germany and his family ultimately meets their cruel demise at the hands of the Nazis. Frustrated and powerless to help them emigrate, Erich must live with deep survivor guilt which affects him in his relationships with his wife and children.
Dear Erich asks what is found when a survivor forms a new family, and what gets lost when the next generation is untethered to the past? The opera’s scenes of immigration and refugees in crisis raise moral dilemmas that resound to this day. Finally, Dear Erich stands for the power of remembrance, not just to honor the past but also to root us in the present and chart our future.
New York City Opera and National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust present the world premiere of
Dear Erich
A Jazz Opera by Ted Rosenthal
Directed by Mikhaela Mahony
Libretto by Lesley Rosenthal and Ted Rosenthal
Starring Jessica Tyler Wright, Brian James Myer, Glenn Seven Allen, Rachel Zatcoff, and Peter Kendall Clark
In English with supertitles
Wednesday, January 9 at 7:30 PM
Thursday, January 10 at 7:30 PM
Saturday, January 12 at 7:30 PM
Sunday, January 13 at 1:00 PM
Tickets start at $25. Buy tickets by clicking the link above or call 866-811-4111.
Please note that all sales are final, no refunds or exchanges.
