By Janelle Gelfand
Enquirer staff writer

Violinist Henry Meyer describes Viktor Ullmann, composer of The Emperor of Atlantis, as "a peculiar man, not easy to get close to, but a tremendous talent."

Meyer, 80, a survivor of Nazi death camps in Dresden, Buchenwald and Auschwitz, knew Ullmann personally.

"I was 14, and I was a special student at the German Conservatory in Prague (from 1936 to 1938)," says Meyer, who was born in Dresden. "He came out there, and I played some chamber music (with Ullmann, a pianist)."

In the '30s, Prague had a flourishing musical culture which, says Meyer, "was very much steered by the Jewish population."

The cultural life was "unbelievable," Meyer says. "I heard things that I would not have heard in Germany. I heard the Vienna Philharmonic under (conductor/pianist) Bruno Walter, and he was playing a Mozart Concerto himself."

Ullmann was a well-regarded young composer, who had studied with Arnold Schoenberg early in his career. Later, he worked with Alexander Zemlinsky, who headed the New German Theater - one of two excellent theaters in Prague at the time.

"He was with the very great masters," Meyer says. But, he adds, "He was a difficult man, who married twice, and had a hard time supporting his family."

When Ullmann and others of the cultural elite were sent an hour away to Terezin (Theresienstadt), a "model" concentration camp, they continued to practice their art under Nazi supervision. Often starving and terrorized, the inmates held concerts of Beethoven and Mozart and mounted operas and oratorios. Composers were kept busy; Hans Krasa wrote his children's opera Brundibar, presented by Cincinnati Opera's education and outreach ensemble in 2000.

In 1943, Ullmann, then 43, created The Emperor of Atlantis with a 24-year-old poet named Petr Kien. He scored it for seven singers and 13 instruments, including banjo and alto sax - the performers who were available in the camp.

Ullmann was also a music critic, whose reviews were published in Terezin. His high standards never left him, Meyer notes.

"To tell a Jewish person interned in Terezin that he gave a beautiful recital, but if he would have practiced a bit, it would have been better..." Meyer shakes his head.

For most of those interned there, Terezin was one stop from the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Ullmann never saw his opera performed. He was killed in 1944.

"They all were killed too soon," Meyer says. "They were tremendously talented, and accomplished a lot for the circumstances they had to endure. Who knows what they might have accomplished?"

If you go

What: Double Bill: The Emperor of Atlantis by Viktor Ullmann and the North American premiere of The Maids by Peter Bengtson. Directed by artistic director Nicholas Muni, with sets and costumes by Dany Lyne, and lighting design by Thomas C. Hase. Patrick Summer, music director for Houston Grand Opera, makes his conducting debut. The cast: Brian Leerhuber (the Emperor); Andrew Gangestad (Death); Ray M. Wade, Jr. (the Soldier); Nancy Allen Lundy (Bubikopf). In The Maids, Allyson McHardy portrays Solange and Lundy is Clair.When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday

Where: Music Hall

Tickets: 241-2742 or www.cincinnatiopera.org

Today: Cincinnati Opera prepares for the double bill with "The Musicality of Violence: The Aesthetics of Terror," an opera rap at 5 p.m. today, Scheuer Chapel, Hebrew Union College, Clifton. Guests are Lydia Goehr, a musicologist at Columbia University, and Peter Bengtson, composer of The Maids. Free but reservations requested: 221-1875, Ext. 367.

Related events

Wednesday and Saturday - The Maids, a play by Jean Genet, at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati (ETC). Featuring Todd Almond; directed by Ruben Polendo. Mr. Polendo, ETC producing artistic director D. Lynn Meyers and The Maids composer Peter Bengtson will hold a "talk-back" session with the audience following the reading. 7 p.m. Wednesday; 2 p.m. Saturday, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, downtown. General admission: $15. 421-3555; www.cincyetc.com and www.cincinnatiopera.org.

Friday and next Sunday - Beautiful and Forbidden: A Concert of Censored Opera. Excerpts from Gesualdo's Madrigals, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Verdi's Rigoletto, Strauss's Salome, Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer, and Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock and more, by members of Cincinnati Opera's Young Artist Program and University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music students. Co-directed by CCM Opera Department chair Sandra Bernhard and Graham Cozzubbo. 8 p.m. Friday; 3 p.m. Sunday, Patricia Corbett Theater, CCM. Tickets $15; 241-2742; www.cincinnatiopera.org and www.ccm.uc.edu.

Friday and next Sunday - Workshop reading of The Emperor of Atlantis: A Play about an Opera, a new play by Calgary-based playwright Stephen Massicotte that tells the story of Viktor Ullmann and the creation of the opera. Directed by CCM faculty member Michael Burnham. 6:30 p.m. Friday; 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Patricia Corbett Theater, CCM. Free; reservations required. 241-2742.

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com