The Atlanta Opera and The Temple are hosting Identity & Conflict, an event featuring a concert and panel discussion in anticipation of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, on Wednesday, May 1, at 6:30 p.m.
The event includes a performance of Jake Hegge and Gene Scheer’s Another Sunrise, inspired by the life of Krystyna Zywulska during the Nazi occupation of Poland. The performance will feature soloist Esther Tonea, a 2022 winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition.
In 1942, Zywulska and her mother walked out of the Warsaw Ghetto in plain view and joined the Polish resistance. She concealed her Jewish identity but was eventually captured and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she persisted in her resistance efforts.
Following the performance, there will be a community discussion exploring the themes of identity, personal choices, and social pressures, both historical and contemporary. The discussion will be moderated by radio host Lois Reitzes and will feature panel members Rabbi Peter Berg, Tomer Zvulun (general and artistic director of The Atlanta Opera), and librettist Gene Scheer.
“This year’s commemoration of Yom HaShoah is particularly poignant in the face of rising antisemitism, a hatred that has always brewed under the surface of society through the ages and has now bubbled over in the wake of the October 7th attack,” said Cantor Tracey Scher of The Temple, the Opera’s partner in this production. “This shared event will help us understand through the lens of a one-act opera and conversation, the stark reminder that the holocaust is not a distant memory and the enormous impact that hatred has on marginalized societies.”
Tickets are $25. For more information, visit atlantaopera.org.
Photo: The panel discussion will feature a performance of Another Sunrise.
