Gideon Dabi, Inna Dukach, Opera Colorado Orchestra & Ari Pelto - Gerald Cohen: Steal a Pencil for Me (2024) [24/96]

Steal a Pencil for Me, by composer Gerald Cohen and librettist Deborah Brevoort, is an opera in two acts about one of the Holocaust’s most unusual love stories—between Jaap Polak, a Dutch accountant, and Ina Soep, the daughter of a wealthy diamond manufacturer—who fell in love while imprisoned in the Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. Based on their love letters, which were published in a book of the same title, Steal a Pencil for Me is about the indestructibility of the life spirit and the power of humankind to survive adversity. The opera dramatizes intimate concerns and private dramas alongside the epic horrors of the Holocaust.

The action of Steal a Pencil for Me takes place in Amsterdam, at Westerbork transit camp, and at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp between the years of 1943-1945. Thirty-year old Jaap Polak is unhappily married to Manja, a capricious woman with a sharp tongue. He falls in love with 20-year old Ina Soep, whose boyfriend, Rudi Acohen, has been seized and deported to Poland by the Nazis. When Jaap, Manja, and Ina are deported to Westerbork, they actually find themselves living in the same barracks. Jaap’s wife objects to the relationship, and Jaap and Ina resort to writing secret love letters, which sustain them throughout the horrible circumstances of the war. Rudi appears onstage in the opera in Ina’s mind, as she gradually reconciles herself to her grief over losing him.

Gerald Cohen knew Jaap and Ina for over 25 years, and was inspired to write the opera after hearing their story and reading their letters. He and Deborah Brevoort met with them many times in the process of writing the libretto, and Jaap and Ina were present at the first workshop of the opera in celebration of Jaap’s 100th and Ina’s 90th birthdays.

Steal a Pencil for Me was given its premiere production in 2018 by Opera Colorado. The album, recorded in Denver in 2022, features most of the central performers of the Opera Colorado production, with Ari Pelto as conductor, and (in the principal vocal roles) Gideon Dabi as Jaap, Inna Dukach as Ina, and Adriana Zabala as Manja.

Tracklist:
01. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act I Scene 1- It’s So Good to See You
02. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act I Scene 1- There's the Girl I Should Have Married!
03. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act I Scene 2- Thirtieth September, Nineteen-Forty-Three
04. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act I Scene 3- Proceed to Administration
05. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act I Scene 4- Get Your Things, Manja!
06. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act I Scene 5- Rudi! Rudi!
07. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act I Scene 6- Hello, Remember Me-
08. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act I Scene 7- How Quickly Tuesday Seems to Come
09. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act I Scene 8- My Always Dearest Girl
10. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act I Scene 8- Dear Jaap
11. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act I Scene 9- They're in Love
12. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act II Scene 1- Roll Call! Morning Roll Call!
13. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act II Scene 2- You're Alive!
14. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act II Scene 2- The Things I Want to Tell You-
15. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act II Scene 3- He's Writing Another Letter!
16. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act II Scene 4- On the Path Past the Barracks
17. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act II Scene 5- Rudi! Rudi!
18. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act II Scene 6- Another Passover Is Here and Still We Are Not Free!
19. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act II Scene 7- Sixth of April, Nineteen-Forty-Five!
20. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act II Scene 8- Three Days, Three Nights
21. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act II Scene 9- We Are the Lucky Ones
22. Cohen- Steal a Pencil for Me, Act II Scene 9- My Always Dearest Girl!


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