Music by Charles Abeles
Libretto by Miriam Sommerburg
Background: 982 refugees from the Holocaust were brought from Europe to the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York and stayed from August 1944 to February 1946. It was President Roosevelt’s only acknowledgment of the Holocaust. All refugees had agreed to return to their homelands after WW II ended, but by that time in1945, there was nothing to go home to or it was dangerous to do so, and they wished to remain in the United States, They used various means to petition authorities to stay, and one was to write an opera that told their story – life in Europe, the journey across the Atlantic, and their experiences at the Shelter in Oswego, referred to as The Golden Cage. All their physical needs were met, but they lacked freedom. Charles Abeles, an Austrian musician, composed the music, and Miriam Sommerburg, a German artist and author, wrote the text.
First Performance: “The Golden Cage” was first performed on New Year’s Eve, 1945 and an abbreviated version in January 1946. By this time, President Truman had signed a doctrine allowing them to stay.
Mystery: “The Golden Cage” was presumed to be lost until recently, but things changed.
1. The music was found in a trunk in the composer’s nephew’s home in Germany
2. The libretto was discovered in the National Archives in Washington, DC
3. Both were put together and edited for performance.
4. Oswego Opera Theater presented the opera on November 12 an 13, 2022, in WatermanTheater on the SUNY Oswego campus as part of the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the refugees In Oswego in 1944.
5. Oswego Opera Theater and WCNY adapted a recording of the live performance for broadcast and digital distribution
6. It was broadcast on WCNY on Holocaust Remembrance Day in January, 2024
7. In 2024 The Golden Cage received an international Telly Award for Music, Dance & Performance in television.
How to View and Hear The Golden Cage: It is available worldwide for streaming on the WCNY website and PBS Passport platform