Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A Vietnam veteran was watching cable TV at his home outside Chicago when news came that was to change his life. Gerald “Mac” McDonald, gravely ill with Hepatitis C which he had contracted while on service, had lived unaware of his family’s Jewish ancestry and its claim on a major art collection looted by the Nazis until now.Fighting his illness, Mac travelled to Europe to retrace the footsteps of one of his forebears during the Holocaust and to view the family’s long-lost paintings in Prague. Now, more than 20 years later, his story has become a slimline chamber opera, one hour in duration.Given its premiere in Chicago last year, Before It All Goes Dark has music by Jake Heggie and words by Gene Scheer. It is being released both as a film and in this audio version for digital download only.The opera opens with a prologue portraying Mac’s ancestor in Prague, using music by Jewish composers of the 1930s. Then the action moves to Mac himself in Chicago and on his European journey. Heggie’s music starts out as businesslike narrative, but when Mac sees the paintings for the first time it enters another world, communing with an unknown forebear in a spirit of disbelief and shared pain.Ryan McKinny takes the part of Mac, Megan Marino all three of the other roles, and Joseph Mechavich conducts the Music of Remembrance ensemble. For an opera exploring art and memory, and coming to terms with a family’s tragic past, Before It All Goes Dark packs a lot into a short time.★★★★☆‘Jake Heggie: Before It All Goes Dark’ is released by EuroArts
