PARADISE BOUND

synopsis

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Immigrants yearning to be free is a universal story that occurs over and over in history, too often with a heartbreaking ending. The new opera Paradise Bound dramatizes one of those stories. On the brink of WWII, the German cruise ship S.S. St. Louis sailed from Hamburg, Germany with 937 Jewish refugees, bound for Havana. But the ship was turned away first by the Cubans, then the Americans, and forced to head back to Germany. In the eleventh hour, the Jews were allowed to disembark in Holland, Belgium, France and England, though sadly over a quarter of the passengers perished in the Holocaust. The centerpiece of the opera is the heroism of the German captain who defied both the cruise line and Germany to help save the Jews. Faked landing cards, smuggled American military secrets intercepted by a Nazi crewman, a Masada-styled mass suicide pact, and a plan to run the ship aground are all part of this true-life tale. A love story between the captain and a Jewish passenger also provides heat and light to this modern tragedy.