As If No Misfortune Had Occurred in the Night

Storyline

An Arabic-language opera about mourning and inherited trauma. Performed by Palestinian soprano Nour Darwish, it fuses Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder with Masha’al, a traditional Palestinian song. Steeped in black and white, Palestinian soprano Nour Darwish delivers an Arabic-language aria about intergenerational sorrow and maternal grief. The haunting composition, based on Gustav Mahler's Kindertotenlieder and the Palestinian traditional song Mashaal, traces a century of loss and harrowing conflict with extraordinary power and grace. – Leonie Woodfin