An opera inspired by the uplifting and intergenerational bond between two intercultural families linked by the Holocaust will stage its world premiere on Gabriola Island.
When Japanese-Canadian composer Rita Ueda first read I Have My Mother’s Eyes: A Holocaust Story across Generations, based on a Vancouver family’s memoir, she was touched by the efforts of the Japanese diplomat and further compelled to share the story of the generations following his heroic efforts during the Second World War.
Chiune Sugihara served as Japan’s vice-consul in Lithuania and covertly issued travel visas to Jewish families fleeing Nazi persecution, disobeying his government’s orders. Of the approximate 6,000 visas that he signed, only 2,000 families are thought to have successfully escaped. It is estimated that roughly 100,000 people are alive today thanks to his disobedience.
“I thought this was very interesting, but what’s more interesting is how the daughter of the woman who was saved, when she sets out to write this memoir, she found that she couldn’t just focus on the escape story. She talks about the three generations of healing that had to take place after the escape,” Ueda said.
The memoir begins with Zosia Bluman who escaped with her future husband, Natek, and tells a story of survival. Zosia’s daughter Barbara, who wrote the memoir, struggles to determine her worth as a survivor. Barbara’s daughter, Danielle, who completed the memoir following Barbara’s death, considers how to heal from intergenerational trauma.
In following the Bluman family’s story, Ueda learned they still kept in touch with the Sugihara family in Japan.
“I met with the granddaughter, the only surviving member of the family right now, and discovered there’s a three-generation story of healing from that family as well,” the composer said.
Chiune’s wife, Yukiko, had given birth only three weeks before Chiune began issuing visas, and was still expected to “buckle down and help her husband.” She documented his actions in a poetry collection called Visas For Life.
“That’s so typical of the role of the woman in the family – the men go off and do something heroic, but it’s a woman that actually takes care of everything else so that he can go and do something,” Ueda said.
Yukiko’s son and granddaughter, Hiroki and Madoka, respectively, continued Chiune’s legacy.
“Right now, with what’s happening in the world, this story of doing the right thing, not the easy thing, is more relevant than ever,” Ueda said.
Although the composer’s adaptation was inspired by the Blumans’ memoir, her opera also accounts for the Sugihara family. In doing so, Ueda discovered a richer story between the two linked families.
In the opera, Gabriola Island’s mezzo-soprano singer Barbara Ebbeson will portray the Bluman family, and Toronto’s soprano singer Teiya Kasahara will portray the Sugihara family.
Ueda’s I Have My Mother’s Eyes will be presented at Gabriola Island’s Phoenix Auditorium at the Haven on Davis Road at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 11, and at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 12.
Following the world premier, the composer will take the opera to the Chutzpah Festival in Vancouver, Nov. 18-19.
Tickets for the Gabriola concert can be purchased in advance for $25, or $30 at the door, and are available at Nova Art and Craft Boutique on North Road.
READ MORE: B.C. to make education about Holocaust mandatory starting 2025-26
mandy.moraes@nanaimobulletin.com
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