An 80-year-old man tries to forget the cruel pain of his past. The ghost of his young boyfriend gently urges him to remember.
For a Look or a Touch, a stunningly beautiful mini-opera about the fate of two gay lovers in Nazi Germany and the redemptive power of memory decades later, debuted in Seattle’s Benaroya Hall in May 2007. Written by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, the drama chronicles what Heggie says is the often-overlooked persecution of gays during the Holocaust and is based on the true story of Gad Beck and Manfred Lewin.
The remarkable and poignant account, suppressed for decades, finally came to light in the powerful HBO documentary, Paragraph 175, a reference to a provision in Germany’s legal code criminalizing homosexuality. On the books since 1871, the anti-gay law wasn’t fully repealed until 1994, effectively silencing many of the war’s survivors, including Gad.
The Seattle-based chamber music organization Music of Remembrance commissioned For a Look or a Touch to help reclaim that history, and Seattle Men’s Chorus and Boston Gay Men’s Chorus re-commissioned an expanded version that debuted in Seattle in April 2011. The Heartland Men’s Chorus (HMC) in Kansas City subsequently performed the piece last year, and the opera’s haunting choral anthem, “A Hundred Thousand Stars,” a reference to the 100,000 gay men arrested by the Nazis, has been sung by choruses across the country.
Opera star Morgan Smith, an acclaimed baritone who originated the role of Manfred, will return to reprise his riveting performance. He will be joined by Kip Niven, a professional Kansas City-based actor best known for his stints on Alice and The Waltons, who will play the part of Gad. “Once I read the script I was taken by the power of the piece,” Niven says. “Once I heard it sung—first during a rehearsal of the HMC, I was flat knocked out.”
Andrew Russell, Intiman Theatre’s Producing Artistic Director, will once again direct the show’s dramatic staging. And the chorus will portray nightclub singers and concentration camp prisoners in a production that has left audiences breathless. The lasting message, says SMC Artistic Director Dennis Coleman, is less about condemning the past horrors of the Third Reich and more about celebrating the personal triumph of a survivor who finally found peace with who he was and what he had overcome.
- Germany Story: Love Wins - July 3, 2014
- Germany Story: The Tour - June 27, 2014
- Germany Story: “For a Look or a Touch” - June 26, 2014
