And the Rat Laughed Synopsis
Opera (2004)
By Ella Milch-Sheriff
Based on a book by Nava Semel
Libretto: Nava Semel and Ella Milch- Sheriff
And the Rat laughed is an original Opera in Hebrew based on Nava Semel's book, published in 2002 to rave reviews, and the well known composer Ella Milch-Sheriff’s original music. This five-part novel dealing with the horrors of the Holocaust and the influence of this harrowing chapter of human history was highly praised for its courage in employing original and unconventional devices and literary tools.
This is the story of a nameless five-year-old child, as it is told to her granddaughter years later. The child’s parents entrust her to a family of farmers living in a remote, picturesque Polish village. She is hidden in a dark potato cellar for over a year, with little food and only a rat for company - and raped repeatedly by the farmers’ son.
When the girl's parents no longer send money, the farmer's wife takes her to the village priest, urging him to kill her. But Father Stanislaw hides the Jewish girl in his church and risks his life in healing her wounded body and broken soul.
Sixty years later, already a grandmother in Tel Aviv, she tries to recount her horrifying childhood to her 12 years old grand-daughter who prepares a school essay. Memory, buried in the darkness for so long, demands its right to emerge. The five genres of the book: story, legend, poetry, futuristic fantasy and a diary, are entwined to create the libretto.
W-Mee Prana, an anthropologist in the year 2099 is bent on uncovering the origins of the widespread myth "Girl & Rat" and she is the main figure in the opera who reveals on stage the circle of Remembearers, those who have the traumatic event registered in their consciousness.
The highlight of the opera is a Mass scene, when Father Stanislaw rebels against his Lord who abandoned his children. In an attempt to restore the girl's hope and her faith in God and mankind, the priest discovers he has lost his own.
The opera is about 1 hour and 30 minutes long, sung by some of the best young Israeli singers, The Moran girl's choir, played by the Israeli Chamber Orchestra and conducted by the young and uprising Israeli conductor Ori Leshman.
Director: Oded Kotler. Stage designer: Adrian Voux.