Come to Me in Dreams and The Diary of Ann Frank @ Ohio Theater 6/9 The Cleveland Opera closed both its 2003-2004 season and an era last weekend, with an intimate double-bill at the Ohio Theater at Playhouse Square Center. David Bamberger, Founding and General Director for 28 years will, in future, be known as Founding Director, as he heads eastward to Cleveland Institute of Music in a different phase in his career. Fittingly, he was the originator of this program, honoring the 75th anniversary of the birth of Anne Frank. He knew of the mono-drama, The Diary of Anne Frank, by the Russian composer Grigori Frid, but it was too short to occupy an entire evening. Therefore, he created a companion piece—Come to Me in Dreams—which had its world premiere on Wednesday evening, June 9. Many of the poems for this work were composed by victims of the Holocaust, some who survivored, some who didn’t. While listening to various song cycles as well as individual songs by the American composer Lori Lait-man, Mr. Bamberger realized that by pulling the cycles apart and rearranging them, a slight story emerged.

Baritone Sanford Sylvan—-on stage for the entire 45 minute work—-is The Survivor: husband and father, grieving for his lost wife, mezzo-soprano Fenlon Lamb, and older daughter, soprano Megan Tillmann. He is unable to share his burden with his younger daughter and surviving child, Sarah Renea Rucker. As in the original song cycle (Holocaust, 1944) accompaniment is the double bass. For these perform-ances, Maximilian Dimoff, of the Cleveland Orchestra, did the honors. All of Ms. Lamb’s songs had piano accompaniment, skillfully provided by Judith Ryder, Director of Cleveland Opera on Tour and Music Di-rector for this production. These songs had a wider range, such as the rather flirty “Wild Nights” with text by Emily Dickinson and reflective “Echo” set to a poem by Christina Rossetti, among others.

Ms. Tillman was by turns joyful or sad in the way of children, with melodious saxophone accompaniment played by Paul Cohen. Yet, these poems (I Never Saw Another Butterfly) were by far the most optimistic of them all. It was only when this child was taken away by two Nazi soldiers that the living child awoke from a nightmare, and was then consoled by her father in a touching scene. n a lovely coda to the piece, Ms. Laitman composed new music for all three instruments behind Ms. Lamb, who sang the final song from which the title for the new work was drawn. “Come to me in dreams . . .” The Diary of Anne Frank was brought in its entirety from the New York City based New Encompass Op-era Theatre, although local musicians formed the nine-member orchestra. Directed by founding Artistic Director Nancy Rhodes and conducted by Sybille Werner, the versatile set design was by Charles Town-send Wittreich, Jr.

Grigori Frid, of Moscow, first read Anne’s diary in 1969, and almost immediately began to write his opera, using selected excerpts to tell the story. There was one full production in 1977, before he smuggled the score to America, and since then, it has achieved international performances and acclaim. In a tour de force portrayal, Dunja Pechstein virtually became the teenage Anne, beginning with the birthday when she receives the diary. She was perfect in the mannerisms and seating habits of a young girl - her soprano voice was agile, yet strong enough to be heard over the sometimes some-what clangorous orchestra. After Anne is sent off to the concentration camp (the same two Nazi soldiers reappeared to roust the at-tic’s occupants out of their safe space) she writes less, but loses none of her optimism. Amazingly, she echoed the same words sung by the Lost Child in the earlier work ‘the world is still beautiful. . .’ At the end, as a huge Star of David is projected onto the rear wall of the set, Anne finds a candle at its base, and lighting it, she moves slowly around the stage, until finally she walks off, head up and alone, into the golden light. by Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz kellytwo@core.com (:divend:)