THE MENSCH
THE MENSCH is an opera about the power of kindness. Meet Anton Schmid: at first glance, just an "ordinary" guy — an electrician in a working-class district in Vienna, Austria. But what he goes on to accomplish is nothing short of extraordinary. Schmid gets drafted into the Wehrmacht during World War II, and, guided by his conscience alone, he goes on to undermine the workings of the fascist machine and save approximately 300 Jews of the Vilna ghetto.
3-minute trailer
Act I is set in Schmid's hometown of Vienna, where he runs an electrical shop. Acts II and III take place in Vilna, Lithuania, where he has been stationed working in an office that reunites lost soldiers with their units. There, one by one, he starts saving Jews.... He helps get them false identities, he delivers many to other, safer ghettos, and even lets some live with him in his Wehrmacht apartment, where he also hosts clandestine meetings of Jewish resistance fighters.
This work is scored for a rich array of characters and an opera chorus, including children. Bernofsky is both the composer and librettist. All three acts of the opera are now completed in piano-vocal score. The finished opera will be scored for full orchestra.
While the opera is Jewish-themed, and therefore a reflection of my cultural background, the story it tells has much wider resonance, touching on human concerns of universal relevance: the importance of living according to your conscience, resisting totalitarianism, and striving to be, at the bottom of it all, a decent human being.
Act I has been presented in a workshop performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will workshop an additional 30 minutes of music this Spring. The composer is currently seeking an opera company or collegiate program to workshop the remainder of Acts II and III, with the option of a premiere of the full production.
Workshop performance of Act I
Final aria from the opera