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EICHMANN IN JERUSALEM
Composed by Mohammed Fairouz
Libretto by David Shapiro
Excerpts from the Monodrama
Performances by Ross Benoliel
Michael Katz (Cello), Sean Lee (Violin), Michelle Ross (Violin), Mary Yong (Viola)
Music Direction by Jody Schum
March 20, 2011
The Great Room at South Oxford Space
138 South Oxford St.
Brooklyn, NY 11217
To follow up, I don’t have a problem with a statement like, “They used children’s bodies as bridges” used for this opera. Only that, the way Mr. Shapiro, or Mr. Fairouz, used it was unartful, by hitting us over the head with it, and not building up to it. It fell flat in the performance, and was completely unaffecting save the annoyance that came with a feeling of being manipulated by the librettist.
Eichmann in Jerusalem: The only comment I have is regarding a potential problem that was brought up during the after performance discussion, namely, that with this disturbing and historical subject matter, there is a chance of moving into kitsch. The first line of text of the “monodrama” was something like, “They used children’s bodies as bridges.” My gut reaction and first impression to both this text, and the fact that the librettist, David Shapiro, choose to use it as the very first line, was that Mr. Shapiro was using shock value in order to elicit an emotional response to this very horrible fact. It is such an over the top statement, I wasn’t even sure that it was true. It wasn’t until after the opera, during the talk, that I realized it was a true statement. If you start the opera with such a visceral statement, where do you go from there? It was a poor and tasteless choice.