Diary of Anne Frank 2016About Turn Theatre Company
Read more about the opera Diary of Anne Frank
The Diary of Anne Frank is based on the famous diary kept whilst Anne's Jewish family were in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam. The entries span the two years until the family's seizure in August 1944, Anne dying in a concentration camp. The entries covered the two years until Anne's fifteenth birthday, and consequently reveal her development under the stresses of close confinement. The characted of Frank wore clothes appropriate to a fifteen year old schoolchild, and brought out well the varied emotions.
The work was performed in English by a split cast of two young women, graduates of the finest music conservatories in Europe, with piano accompaniment.
Sharing the role of Anne are Swiss Soprano Vera Hiltbrunner and New Zealander Polly Ott. Hiltbunner is currently finishing her vocal masters at the FHK Tilburg in the Netherlands. Ott, having been part of the Emerging Artists programme with the New Zealand Opera, is beginning her professional career in Berlin. On the day of our reviewer's visit, Vera Hiltbrunner was Anne, and the pianist Stavroula Thoma.
Fusing lyrical and emotive melodies with the avant-garde, Grigori Frid's music provides an intimate and intense insight into the profound thoughts of this truly astonishing young woman. A young woman whose refusal to give up hope in the face of the Holocaust keeps inspiring people around the world, and whose story has become a memorial for humanity itself.
This was a visually impressive production of a claustrophobic and bleak story. The set was dominated by a screen to the rear with photographs of the faces of holocaust victims. The soloist went behind the back screen and brought out portraits of the faces of holocaust victims at appropriate points. The characted of Frank wore clothes appropriate to a fifteen year old school child As the performance went on, Hiltbrunner and Thoma brought out the changing emotions and moods in the music.
Director Sebastian Ukena said "Anne's message has lost nothing of its relevance; we need to listen to her, perhaps more than ever. War, genocide, flight and expulsion are a still a sad reality. Who knows how many diaries of young girls (and boys) have been burned in the Syrian civil war? Or in Bosnia? Or Rwanda?"
This production's aim was to bring the story, and Anne's message, to a new generation in a new way.
Running time 45 minutes
