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CONCERT | NEW YORK OPERA SOCIETY @NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
LETTERS FROM RUTH by Gisle Kverndokk and Askel-Otto Bull
September 24, 2017 | 3:30 pm
World premiere staged reading @National Gallery of Art
Music by Gisle Kverndokk, libretto by Aksel-Otto Bull and Gisle Kverndokk, based on Ruth Maier’s Diary: A Young Jewish Girl’s Life under Nazism, edited by Jan Erik Vold. Commisioned by Musikkteaterforum, Norway
An exceptionally talented writer and painter who kept a diary her whole life, Ruth Maier was born in 1920 and grew up in Vienna, Austria. She immersed herself in the theater, literature, and fine arts. In 1939 Ruth fled to Norway to escape Nazi persecution and lived with a family in Lillestrøm, just outside Oslo. She learned to speak Norwegian fluently, and in 1941 she met the young, budding poet Gunvor Hofmo, who became her intimate friend and lover. They had a stormy relationship that lasted until Ruth was deported with Norwegian Jews in November 1942. Ruth was killed in the gas chamber of Auschwitz upon her arrival. Gunvor became one of Norway’s greatest poets, and kept Ruth’s diaries, which were discovered after Gunvor’s death in 1995. Ruth’s diaries were published in 2007 and edited by the Norwegian poet Jan Erik Vold. In this staged concert the New York Opera Society premieres selections from the new opera in advance of its world premiere.
When: Sunday, September 24, 2017 | 3:30 pm
Where: West Building, West Garden Court 6th & Constitution Ave NW, Washington, DC 20565
Tickets: General admission is free and open to the public.
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