Maestra Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the Orquesta Del Teatro De Madrid collaborated on a new recording of Mieczyław Weinberg’s opera The Passenger. The release of this digital album on Grammophon Records in January 2025 coincided with the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day. Singers on the album include Amanda Majeski (Marta), Daveda Karanas (Lisa), Nikolai Schukoff (Walter), and Gyula Orendt/Stephen Waarts (Tadeusz).
Although it was composed in 1968, The Passenger was only staged in its entirety for the first time in 2010 at the Bregenz Festival in Austria. Based on a 1962 novel by concentration camp survivor Zofia Posmysz, it quickly became known as one of the most important operas of the second half of the 20th century – with a subject matter that is more important today than ever.
This new recording received the coveted ‘Editor’s Choice’ designation in the April 2025 edition of Gramophone Magazine. Read the review at www.gramophone.co.uk.
[Source: Gramophone Newsletter]