Grigori Frid's monodrama "The Diary of Anne Frank" is performed at the Jerusalem Theatre on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Conductor: Omer Arieli. Soloist: soprano Ayelet Cohen

 

Soprano Ayelet Cohen (Elad Zagman)

Commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 28th 2022, Russian-Jewish composer Grigori Frid's opera "The Diary of Anne Frank",  a monodrama in 21 scenes for soprano and chamber orchestra, was staged in the Henry Crown Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre. A collaboration of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Jerusalem Opera and Opera Piccola, the role of Anne Frank was performed by Ayelet Cohen. Conducting the opera was Jerusalem Opera musical director Omer Arieli. Alex Kagan was stage director.

 

Grigori Frid (1915-2012) was born in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) to a family of Jewish intellectuals. He served as a soldier in World War II, experiencing the horrors, violence and suppression of war. His oeuvre includes symphonies, concertos, incidental music for theatre and films, as well as vocal and chamber music. His most notable works, however, are two chamber operas - "The Diary of Anne Frank" (1968) and "The Letters of Van Gogh" (1975). "The Diary of Anne Frank" premiered with piano accompaniment at the All-Union House of Composers in Moscow in May 1972.  Frid was also a visual artist, held a series of exhibitions of his paintings and had authored a few volumes of recollections, two of which were published in 1987 and 1991.

 

Frid's monodrama "The Diary of Anne Frank"  is based on the writings of the young Jewish girl hidden with her family and other people in an attic in Amsterdam from 1942.  Anne's diary entries end on August 1st 1944. Three days later the secret annex was discovered. Its occupants were sent to extermination camps. Anne Frank died at age 16 of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The family's only survivor was Otto Frank, Anne's father. In addition to keeping a diary, Anne had also written stories and planned to publish a book about her time in the secret annex. After the war, Otto Frank fulfilled her wish, publishing the diary, which has been translated into more than 70 languages. 

 

At the Jerusalem event, the ensemble of 22 players of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra with Maestro Arieli occupied the left side of the stage. To the right, a table, a vase of flowers and a chair were the only props for the staging of the monodrama itself. The opera's short acts were punctuated by film clips, mostly showing the Nazi occupation, echoing with the sounds of war and scenes from concentration camps, as well as a few glimpses of the city of Amsterdam, its canals, bridges and bicycles, these all accompanied by readings from Anne Frank's diary engagingly presented (in Hebrew) by actor Alex Ansky. For the Israeli performance, the opera's Russian text was translated into Hebrew by David Sebba. There were surtitles in English and Hebrew. 

 

In her precise, in-depth and commanding performance of the role of Anne Frank, soprano Ayelet Cohen brought to life its many dimensions, the text brimming with memories of life before the family's isolation, mention of friends, the girl's joy at receiving a birthday present, her developing feelings for fellow hideaway Peter, the changing seasons and with her profound life philosophy. “I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn…I've found that there is always some beauty left -- in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you…He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery!””  The text, however, begins to shift between resignation, almost euphoric optimism and moments of anger and dire despair. "Who has inflicted this upon us? Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up till now?"  Cohen's natural and convincing stage presence is endorsed by her bright, easeful soprano timbre, solid vocal technique, fine projection and her articulate and masterful handling of Frid's terse and succinct musical language, its style based on twelve-tone and other mid-20th century compositional styles, the score effectively evoking the text's heartening, sunny aspects but also its stark, fateful, sinister and elegiac colours. Under Maestro Arieli's direction, the instrumental ensemble gave an excellent reading of the pithy score. Impressive, thought-provoking and intensely moving, this was the first Israeli performance with orchestra of "The Diary of Anne Frank".

 

Founder and soloist of Opera Piccolo, Jerusalem-born Ayelet Cohen has enjoyed successful performances throughout the San Francisco Bay area, in Israel and Italy. She has sung with the Berkeley-, Oakland- and Sacramento Opera Companies and with the Israeli Opera, also soloing with the Jerusalem-, Ashdod- and Rishon LeZion Symphony Orchestras and the Israel Camerata Jerusalem.

Photo: Elad Zagman

Maestro Omer Arieli