Free April 28 concert features premiere of Marvin David Levy's "Atonement"

Boris Lurie Art Foundation Presents Premiere of Marvin David Levy’s Oratorio Atonement, Sung by Ana María Martínez and Michael Fabiano and Narrated by Mario M. Cuomo, in Free Concert at Temple Emanu-El on April 28

On April 28, the Boris Lurie Art Foundation will present a free concert at New York’s historic Temple Emanu-El. On the program is the world premiere of Marvin David Levy’s oratorio Atonement, a reworking of three of Levy’s previous pieces that have never before been performed in New York City. Exploring three critical moments of Jewish history – “Holocaust”, “Inquisition”, and “Masada”, Atonement will be performed by Grammy Award-winning soprano Ana María Martínez and tenor Michael Fabiano, a Grand Prize Winner of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, with narration by Mario M. Cuomo, former governor of the state of New York and father of current governor Andrew M. Cuomo. Eugene Kohn, who boasts an extensive recorded discography with Plácido Domingo, will lead a full choir and orchestra for the concert, which will be filmed for future television broadcasts on dates and networks to be announced. Full concert details follow below.

Winner of two Guggenheim Fellowships and two Prix de Rome awards, Marvin David Levy (b.1932) is best known for his opera Mourning Becomes Electra, which debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 1967 and was embraced by Leonard Bernstein, who called it “a tremendous achievement.” Atonement represents a re-working of three pieces by Levy that explore catastrophic episodes in Jewish history. The opening movement, “Holocaust”, a short soundscape for chorus, concerns the most recent historical event, and is especially poignant since the visual artist Boris Lurie (1924-2008), who co-founded the NO!art movement and in whose name the foundation was established, was himself a Holocaust survivor.

Atonement’s middle movement, “Inquisition”, originally titled Canto de los marranos (“Song of the Crypto Jews”), depicts the predicament of late-15th-century Spanish Jews. Forced to convert to Christianity, they were expelled from their country when it was discovered that they still practiced Judaism in secret. A Naxos recording of the Canto prompted Opera News to admire “the thoughtful dramatic contours of the piece and the yearning beauty of the vocal lines,” and the magazine praised soprano Ana María Martínez for her “sympathetic and impressive account.” Now, New Yorkers will have the opportunity to hear the lyric soprano’s rendition of Canto (as “Inquisition”) in live performance, as well as narration from the Honorable Mario M. Cuomo, who is featured in the same movement.

“Masada”, Atonement’s finale, was originally written for the great American tenor Richard Tucker, who premiered it with the National Symphony Orchestra under Antal Dorati in 1973. The April 28 performance showcases the “intensely expressive tenor” (New York Times) of Michael Fabiano. The movement’s title refers to the ancient Jewish fortress on the shore of the Dead Sea in which 960 men, women, and children held out for three years against Roman attack in the first century A.D. When the Roman invasion was imminent, they proudly chose mass suicide, leaving their enemies only a barren victory. Their story was recorded by the Romano-Jewish historian Josephus and forms the textual framework for Levy’s oratorio. According to the composer, “Here we remember an uncommon moment when the vanquished may be counted among history’s ultimate survivors, rendering the epic of Masada a shining metaphor for us all.”