Discussion and Selection of Performances
In his third novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon gifted readers with an extraordinary pair of immigrant cousins who invent an anti-fascist comic superhero reflecting the fears and dreams of Jewish New Yorkers as the Nazis closed in on their relatives back home.
Weaving Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay into a love song to the mad new American art form of the comic book and to New York’s rising Jewish community, Chabon created a sensation and won a Pulitzer Prize.
Now, the Metropolitan Opera has reimagined that novel with an eclectic score that captures Chabon’s disparate worlds, from Nazi-occupied Prague to vibrant New York and the zaniness of comic book fantasyland.
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Cultural Center is proud to welcome members of the cast to perform selections from the opera and composer Mason Bates, librettist Gene Scheer and director Bartlett Sher for a conversation about translating a book into an opera and capturing the essence of New York Jewry as the Nazi nightmare unfolded.
The Temple Emanu-El Choir will join the program with a rendition of “Ani Ma’amin,” music composed by Mason Bates.