
Thai composer Somtow Sucharitkul's opera Helena Citronova had its European premiere in Hof, Germany, late last month, and it was a stunning success.
It was an outstanding production by Theater-Hof, directed by Lothar Krause and conducted by Ivo Hentschel, sung in German, unlike the world premiere in English in Bangkok in 2020. Somtow's opera is set in the Auschwitz concentration camp and tells the real-life story of a Slovakian Jew, Helena, who falls in love with an SS officer, Franz Wunsch.