(MENAFN- Arab Times) LZBURG Austria July 27 (Agencies): The prestigious Salzburg Festival is known for its classical performances of Mozart and Bach but this year the spotlight is on a new modern opera telling the story of German artist and Holocaust victim Charlotte Salomon. Salomon's short life is depicted in hundreds of paintings she did while in exile in the south of France before she was deported and killed by the Nazis in Auschwitz in 1943 aged just 26. Now her paintings with subjects ranging from Berlin society dinners to the Nazis' power grab and the resulting Jewish exodus have been given new life on the stage. 'Charlotte Salomon' created by French composer Marc-Andre Dalbavie and directed by acclaimed Swiss director Luc Bondy will have its world premiere on Monday. Translating her artwork into music was almost self-evident says Dalbavie who will also conduct the opera in Salzburg. 'Charlotte Salomon's whole artistic work began with music. She always sang when she painted and it's this singing that inspired her painting. So there is a very strong relationship between the singing the painting and her story' he told AFP. Modern Music by Georges Bizet and Johann Sebastian Bach and even nursery rhymes that were referenced in the paintings dip in and out of Dalbavie's modern score. Salomon's art often featured text and commentaries about events and these have also been incorporated into German writer Barbara Honigmann's libretto. Not just a chronicle of political developments in Germany and France in the 1930s and 1940s 'Charlotte Salomon' follows a young woman's search for her identity and efforts to escape a family curse that had seen several of her relatives including her mother and grandmother kill themselves. 'She creates these works to rebuild her identity and also to save herself... she doesn't want to kill herself she wants to live' said the 53-year-old Dalbavie. 'These works are really what will allow her eventually to free herself from her family.' That she is then deported precisely as she finds a will to live 'is a very dramatic irony' he added. Salomon's collection of paintings entitled 'Life or Theatre' is now kept at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam. Backdrop Using this expressive artwork as a projected backdrop the opera is performed with two Charlottes mezzo soprano Marianne Crebassa singing in French and actress Johanna Wokalek narrating in German. Set against Dalbavie's dramatic music Salomon's mother and grandmother kill themselves her father is taken away by faceless Nazi thugs in masks and Jews huddle while discussing whether to flee the coming apocalypse. In the background Salomon's paintings show a swastika marching troops and ships in the night that will take those fleeing to safety. But she also discovers love and art and her paintings once in southern France are filled with warm colours a challenging mood to render in an opera director Bondy told AFP. 'Her fictional biography has a very cheerful side it's sometimes melancholy... That's very difficult to convey in an opera because opera isn't really something that's funny' he said. 'There are a lot of serious aspects but I think you can also see a cheeky side in this Charlotte' he added. 'It's a story that captures the heart and makes you think.' Commissioned specially for the Salzburg Festival which chose 'war' as this year's theme in honour of the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I 'Charlotte Salomon' is Dalbavie's second opera after 'Gesualdo' in 2010. 'I find myself at a festival that is best known for performing the great classical pieces especially Mozart Richard Strauss and the great German repertoire' he admitted ahead of the premiere at Salzburg's imposing Felsenreitschule theatre which is carved into a rock. 'Now here comes a French piece with French singers. It's a bit new for them. We'll see how the public will react' he said with a smile. Also: NEW YORK: Double Tony-winner James Earl Jones returns to the New York stage next month as an eccentric grandfather in a revival of the 1930s comedy romance 'You Can't Take It With You' along with Australian actress Rose Byrne who is making her Broadway debut. The play about a loving but odd American family won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937. Previews begin on Aug. 26 and the play opens on Sept. 28 for a limited 19-week run. Jones ('Fences' 'The Great White Hope') who last appeared on Broadway in a revival of Gore Vidal's 'The Best Man' in 2012 is Martin Vanderhof. He heads a multiracial cast as the income tax-averse patriarch of the family in the role made famous by Lionel Barrymore in Frank Capra's 1938 Oscar-winning film of the same name. 'It is about forces attracting each other in the family. It's like they are in orbit and the principle is that you can be yourself as long as you don't hurt anyone else' Jones 83 said in an interview with his famously resonating voice. Vanderhof gave up his job decades earlier and hasn't paid any taxes for just as long. He wants all of his extended clan to find happiness. Trouble brews when his granddaughter Alice (Byrne) the sanest member of the family and a secretary in a Wall Street firm falls in love with the boss's son Tony Kirby. Actor Fran Kranz 33 takes on the role played by James Stewart in the film. 'Inside the action of the play she finds the man of her dreams and there is a problem a class problem' Jones said about the family dilemma. Alice is torn between her devotion for her wacky clan and the man she loves. His snobbish upper-crust family disapprove of the match. 'If just felt really right' Byrne 35 said about the role although she admitted to being nervous about her first venture on Broadway. 'It's a period piece. It's a classic beloved play that hasn't been done in since the 80s' added Byrne who appeared in the hit comedy 'Bridesmaids' and superhero action film 'X-Men: First Class.' The 1983 Broadway revival of the Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman play starred Jason Robards as grandpa. The popular play was also made into a TV series and TV movie. Byrne sees her character as a conduit for the audience and the voice of reason. Although she loves her family she is aware and somewhat embarrassed that they are unconventional. Because of the differences between them Alice believes a marriage to her fiance would never work. 'The idea of the American family is such an interesting morphing concept. This is a very modern family even for the 30s obviously it was an incredibly modern play' said Byrne. 'The themes and the sentiments behind it are still relevant and kind of radical' she said.
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