Waterman Theatre will host “The Golden Cage,” an operetta originally written and performed by WWII refugees living at Fort Ontario, on Nov. 12 and 13 for its first performance since 1945. 

“The Golden Cage” tells the story of the 982 WWII refugees that came to the U.S. in 1944. At the time, they were only granted asylum for the duration of the war and would be forced to return to Europe when the fighting was over. 

About a year ago, SUNY Oswego professor and orchestra conductor Juan LaManna was approached by Marilynn Smiley, the president of the board of the Oswego Opera Theater and a SUNY Oswego emerita professor of music to work on making it performable again. Smiley had obtained the original score from the nephew of the composer but it was missing some parts. 

“This production is radically different in the sense that I have never done a production where I am responsible for every note that is being played or sung,” LaManna said. “In a way, I was copying what the composer had done but many things were left incomplete. He did not write down many sections, so I had to hunt down the libretto from the storyline and vice versa there were sections with words but no music.”

Though LaManna has been working on the score for many months, production began more recently. 

“We have been rehearsing with the children for two months but everyone is coming together for just two weeks,” LaManna said. 

The full cast includes 13 children ages 7-13, an orchestra of five, eight refugees, two of which are students and six are SUNY Oswego faculty or community members and three opera singers from New York City. 

One of the SUNY Oswego students, Molly DeMarco, joined the cast as an understudy but was asked by LaManna to take on the role of an ensemble member after another cast member dropped out.

“I was asked to do the role two Fridays ago and everyone else was asked to do their role a month and a half ago,” DeMarco said. “They’ve had vocal rehearsals already and I didn’t even know I was going to be in it.” 

Though she is only one of two SUNY Oswego students in the production, DeMarco said she felt completely welcomed by the other cast members, which includes two of her professors. 

“They act like I am a professional,” DeMarco said. “It made me think ‘wow, maybe I can do this.’”

As a music student planning on continuing her education in vocals, DeMarco said she was excited to have the opportunity to join an opera for the first time. 

“They put on operas every year but I think this one specifically is really exciting because it’s completely new,” DeMarco said. “All the characters are based on real people who came to our area and were overlooked because they were Jewish. It’s really good to put this out into the world to give those people agency even outside of Oswego.”

Along with performers, LaManna said the operetta will also feature projected images of the refugees, Fort Ontario, the ship that brought them to the U.S. and more. There will also be recordings of statements from the people in the photos broadcasted throughout the show as well as letters from former U.S. presidents. 

“Doing something like this for the first time is exceptionally difficult,” LaManna said. “There are a set of new possibilities that one has to take into consideration so it’s really hard to guess what is the best in order to bring the show about in a truthful way.”

Another unique aspect to the production, according to LaManna, is that the show does not follow a specific line of events. 

“It tells an amazing story of survival and hope,” LaManna said. The operetta does not have a thorough storyline …  It’s a set of songs in which recollections or thoughts or ideas about the refugees’ experiences ranging from when they can come to the United States … [to] despair at coming to Oswego and being put behind a fence and considered a zoo animal. The opera has all these glimpses of feeling but they all refer to something that really happened, which is the Holocaust.” 

“The Golden Cage” will debut in Oswego for the second time in history at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12 and 3 p.m. on Nov. 13. Tickets can be purchased through SUNY Oswego’s ticket website. 

Photo provided by: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum