2004 | One act opera.
Come To Me in Dreams was created from 15 of my songs by Cleveland Opera’s David Bamberger. Premiere: June 2004, The Ohio Theatre, Cleveland, OH. Archival video below. Please see my Opera Page for more details.
I Did Not Manage to Save; Faults; Yes, That’s the Way Things Are; To-Night; Birdsong; Massacre of the Boys; Wild Nights; The Butterfly; The Years; Holocaust, 1944; Man Proposes, God Disposes; Jewels; The Garden; Both Your Mothers; Echo.
Below is Donald Rosenberg’s review of the premiere, from The Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 2004:
“The Nazis destroyed millions of lives, but they couldn’t contain the thoughts and words of many who refused to lose hope. Cleveland Opera’s final program of the season…brings some of those words to affecting and disturbing life…[The] company is presenting the double bill of Lori Laitman’s Come to Me in Dreams (in its world premiere) and Grigori Frid’s The Diary of Anne Frank (in its Ohio premiere).
Both works have striking features, especially Come to Me in Dreams, a selection of Laitman songs tied together by David Bamberger, Cleveland Opera’s retiring general director. Bamberger’s scenario depicts the struggle of a Holocaust survivor to come to terms with the loss of his wife and a daughter.
The texts for the 15 songs in Come to Me in Dreams are derived from various sources, including children who died in the Nazi concentration camp Theresienstadt (Terezin). Laitman’s settings are exuberant, poignant and harrowing realizations, written with a musical poet’s ear for expressive warmth, nuance and color.”
