Migration and globalization, women trafficking and critique of bourgeois society are a few of the topics at the heart of the opera “The Golden Dragon”, by the contemporary Hungarian composer Peter Eötvös. It is a farcical comedy which succeeds to touch on the vulnerability and exploitation of refugees.

Eötvös wrote: “My work is created in memory of the numerous Arabic and African individuals who unwittingly climbed into overcrowded boats in the hope of arriving to a happier world and sank in the open sea before even reaching the Italian coast.”

What is the relevance of opera in today’s global culture, and as an institution born in the bourgeois European culture - can it critique its own society?

Towards the performance of “The Golden Dragon” at the Gesher Theatre as part of the Jaffa Festival, we hosted the opera’s director, Bruno Berger-Gorski, for a conversation, recounting the opera’s plot, based on a play by Roland Schimmelpfennig. Together with other guests, we discussed opera as a contemporary art, and assessed the political effect that opera or theatre can have – if any.

Conversation guests:

Yaser Abdalla – Actor and Playwright, author of the play “The Crazy Refugee”, soon to premiere at 1:1, asylum seeker from Darfur, Sudan.

Dr. Chen Alon – Director and founder of Holot Theatre, Head of the Community Theater, Artivism and Social Change Program, Tel-Aviv University.

Dr. Yaffa Schuster, Actress, Director of the African Israeli Stage.

Moderator: Omer Krieger

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The event was held in collaboration

with the Goethe-Institut Israel

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23.5.19