Tags: Artist

Charlotte Salomon

Marc-André Dalbavie composer. This opera, with libretto by Barbara Honigmann, is based on Salomon’s semi-fictional diary, (Life? Or Theater?), created during her French exile from 1940 to 1942. She was sent to Auschwitz and murdered there, 26 years old and pregnant. Her diary included more than 700 pages of watercolor images, text, and musical references. She described it as a Singespiel, or a play in song. Her art has been shown in museums throughout the world. The opera premiered in Salzburg, Austria, during the summer of 2014.

Charlotte: Life? or Theater?

This musical is based on Charlotte Salomon’s Life? or Theater? (Viking Press, 1981). She grew up in Berlin in the 1920s and died in Auschwitz in 1943 at the age of 26. In 1939, in refuge in France, she discovered the truth about a series of suicides in her family. To make sense of her existence she began to paint Life? or Theater? with more than 800 paintings, text, and musical references. Music by Gary Fagin. The production follows Charlotte’s story.