Holocaust center brings anti-war opera to Fall River

For its annual fundraiser, the Bristol Holocaust and Genocide Center is proud to bring the Connecticut Lyric Opera Company to Bristol Community College’s Fall River campus on Oct. 13 for a performance of Viktor Ullman’s “The Emperor of Atlantis.” 

Ullman, a prominent Austrian Jewish composer, created the satirical anti-war opera, along with librettist and fellow prisoner Peter Kien, while an inmate in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Ullman would later die in the Auschwitz death camp.

The Connecticut Lyric Opera Company is a professional ensemble that stages operas throughout the U.S.  and Europe. The production of “The Emperor of Atlantis,” on BCC’s Fall River campus, at 777 Elsbree St., is the only one planned in New England at this time; it will be performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City later in the fall.  The opera company will be accompanied by the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra.

Tickets to the Oct. 13 performance, at 2 p.m., are $50, or $25 for students. To reserve tickets, write to Dr. Ron Weisberger, LRC 200a, Bristol Community College, 777 Elsbree St., Fall River, MA 02730. For questions, email Ron.Weisberger@bristolcc.edu or call 508-678-2811, ext. 2444.

In addition to the opera, the holocaust center has a number of other programs scheduled for the fall, including a workshop for regional teachers, led by the national organization Echoes and Reflection, and three lunchtime lectures by local Holocaust and genocide scholars, all of which will be held at the Fall River campus. All programs are open to the public.

For more information on the center, go to  www.bristolcc.edu/about/inthecommunity/bristolholocaustandgenocidecenter.

Submitted by the Bristol Holocaust and Genocide Center