The Emperor of Atlantis
February 2009
Co-presented with the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, this was the British Columbia premiere of a unique and deeply moving chamber opera by Viktor Ullmann and Petr Kien. While its score survived, its creators did not. The Nazis shipped its entire company off to Auschwitz. Only its art remained.
The opera speaks both to transformation and recurrence. It speaks from the nadir of the 20th century to the continued violence and despair of the 21st. Ullmann and Kien, together with their colleagues at Theresienstadt, created a masterwork.
Cast and Creative Team
- Charles Barber, conductor
- Peter Jorgensen, director
- Andrew Greenwood, baritone
- Robyn Driedger-Klassen, soprano
- Megan Morrison, mezzo-soprano
- William George, tenor
- Stephen Aberle, bass-baritone
- John Minágro, bass
- Sam Chung, tenor
- Alishia Suitor, dancer
- Kayla Dunbar, dancer
- Dr. Jaap Hamburger, speaker
