How Dare the Angel Sing

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We seek investors and a German and/or USA-based production company for assistance to attract investment to develop and produce this important film. 'How Dare the Angel Sing' will be a feature-length documentary-drama revealing parallel victims of bigotry across centuries: Eugen Engel, a Jewish composer in 1920-30s Berlin, and Grete Minde, the protagonist of his opera. Through three acts, a unique narrator - the spirit of Grete Minde herself - guides viewers through interconnected stories of persecution, artistic triumph, and human resilience.

Stylistic Approach:
This documentary drama, based on facts, engages like a fictional narrative. The style is emotional, showing relatable experiences ranging across fear, passion, sorrow, triumph and vindication. Throughout, Eugen Engel’s music weaves together a rich tapestry of people, events and imaginatively recreated scenes across four centuries from the early 1600s up to today. It includes real-world events with archival footage and contemporary news footage of political conflicts. It also includes interviews with opera artists about why they love both the music and the parallel stories of Eugen and the opera’s subject, Grete Minde, in the face of today’s resurgence of anti-immigrant and racial bigotry. In addition, the tapestry includes excerpts from the 2023 performance of Eugen Engel’s opera; letters Eugen wrote to his family during exile and capture; and reenactment scenes of the historical characters Eugen and Grete, and a fictional character, the Spirit of Grete Minde. These scenes and characters could be created with live actors if the budget is available or, more economically, through animation. (We have experimented to show a vision of such storytelling through generative AI video of a few scenes, for discussion.) Grete’s Spirit provides a sort of “Greek Chorus,” making observations on the action, providing narrative context to deepen understanding of Eugen’s struggle to bring his life’s work to the theater. Eugen’s music and songs — joyous, rapturous and tearful — are in themselves a “character” to help tell this unforgettable story.

Treatment for Act 1 and Outline for Acts 2 and 3

ACT ONE – SPREADING WINGS

A crowd is singing a religious choral of death, judgement and redemption gathered around a woman tied to a stake with a smoky fire at the base. Close up, between wisps of rising smoke, a young woman’s face appears. She shows both fear and resistance, breathing quickly, coughing slightly, and a man off-camera speaks coarsely, “More smoke there! More smoke!” The woman speaks, “I deny this! When will a woman’s word be as good as a man’s? You falsely accuse me! This is my home! He stole my inheritance! I did not destroy my own home! Mother Mary please let me live!” As she despairs and begins to lose consciousness due to the smoke, she reminisces as a voice-over (or actually speaking) in a sequence of short flashback scenes, which are occasionally interrupted by the present reality of smoke rising around her:
• Medieval music plays as she dances in a circle with other women in medieval clothing around a Maypole in early 1600s rural Germany.
• Funereal music concludes, and at a funeral a somber man in formal clothing calls her “Grete.” He takes her aside to say bitterly that their father never should have remarried to “a dirty Papist Catholic,” Grete’s mother. Now that both parents are dead, he instructs Grete to leave the family house and live elsewhere. Grete asks, “My dear brother…” about receiving her father’s inheritance; they have a dispute, and the man walks away.
• The music of a travelling theater plays as Grete stands close by a young man, her lover, watching the troupe dance down the street in the small town of Tangermünde.
• Grete and the young man are alone in a garden, and as they embrace they talk about love and Grete’s right to her inheritance.
• Grete sings, wearing a stage costume of angel’s wings, to an attentive rural audience where the same young man watches admiringly, as Grete (VOICE OVER) describes she ran away from home to join the travelling troupe.
• A man is playing a hurdy-gurdy (with a similar sound to a violin or bagpipe) in the Tangermünde street as Grete walks alone carrying an infant. She knocks on the door of a small house where the brother, seen at the funeral, opens the door, and Grete declares she is destitute and needs her inheritance. They dispute. He slams the door in her face.
• Townsfolk are shouting as the town’s buildings are on fire.
• Grete is walking through a burnt section of the town when a small group of men grab her and lead her away, as the brother looks on from a distance.
• Grete faces a court tribunal that accuses her of arson, and she tries to protest that she is innocent, but she is not allowed to speak for herself and an unknown man next to her, talks for her.
• Grete in a jail cell looks physically beaten since she has been tortured, and men come to lead her away.

Then, Grete is back at the burning stake where the crowd sings. She is coughing, and she declares: “He stole my inheritance! When will a woman’s word be as good as a man’s? I’m falsely accused because I’m a woman! This is my home, dear Tangermünde, so why do this to me?! I am one of you! Save me!”

When the smoke and flames rise around Grete, she panics more severely and begins to lose consciousness. As she dies in the rising smoke, she transfigures: the Spirit of Grete appears from her body, a translucent version of herself, and it slowly rises, looking down on her own body in the smoky flames and the crowd singing below. Grete’s voice from the Spirit continues: “But I belong! Who understands? A woman’s word is worth her life! Please know me! Who can save me?! Where do I belong?”

As Grete’s Spirit rises further, the clouds and sky move, and the wind blows in ways to convey that she is on a long journey through time and space, across three centuries where her Spirit is drawn to see events related to her reputation. Men discuss Grete’s story and condemn her as an arsonist; they look at a life-size wooden statue of her burning at the stake; a priest in the pulpit gives a sermon denouncing Grete as evil and a prostitute; a scholar examines court records and describes to a colleague that the court proceeding against Grete Minde was poorly conducted and probably unfair; an author (Theodor Fontane) writes his novella “Grete Minde” in the 1870s; people talk about his novel and Grete: “She was too assertive!” “She only thought about herself!” “I think she did burn down the town – in revenge!” In each occurrence Grete’s Spirit observes and her face expresses a mixture of dismay or disbelief, as her voice continues: “They use me again and again.” “Does anyone understand?” “Does anyone care?”

Grete’s Spirit continues to travel through time and space until she is drawn to Berlin in the 1920s. She is astonished by many aspects of the Weimar Republic: the economically bustling city; the flourishing art scene; the open sexuality in the arts and entertainment; and the political movements in the streets, including marching for women’s suffrage and voting rights, all which excite her. She is drawn to the sound of a piano playing in an apartment at Charlottenstraße 74–75 in Berlin-Mitte, where a man plays, as he composes orchestral music. She hears what he hears in his imagination and sees what he visualizes on the stage… and she realizes he is composing an opera about her. It is “Grete Minde.” The composer imagines Grete as strong-willed, free-spirited, joyous, and capable of love… but she is misunderstood, rejected and “othered” like an unwanted foreigner by her own community. Grete marvels at this man. Finally, she is being legitimized and appreciated.

ACT TWO – THE STORM [Narrative outline]

His calling card reveals that he is Eugen Engel, a fabric tradesman specializing in women’s coats and ready-to-wear fabrics. He lives in an apartment on Charlottenstrasse in the heart of Berlin. He is a self-taught musician, spending countless hours listening to classical music and composing his own music, including lieder, string quartets, and concertos in addition to his passion project, the opera. His daughter Eva accompanies her father to music and record shops, where they enjoy listening to music together.

Meanwhile the political storm clouds gather on the horizon as the Nazi movement gains momentum, with turmoil in the streets below his apartment window on Charlottenstrasse.

Skirting confrontations, Eugen goes to concerts where he deepens his relationships with other musicians and established composers, often bringing music scores with him. On one occasion, the conductor Bruno Walter announces that he needs a particular musical score and, on the spot, Eugen lends his copy to Walter.

Eugen continues to work on the Grete Minde opera in his apartment as Grete’s Spirit looks on admiringly.

After Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch, the storm clouds of a national revolution are gathering. There is violence in the streets of Berlin, too. The National Socialist Party (Nazis) attempts to gain power rock people’s lives. But for Eugen, they seem not to be an issue. One day, listening to Hitler’s speech on the radio, he says out loud, “What a fool! He will never get into power.”

In 1929, Eugen’s wife dies at the young age of 46 from colon cancer. He buries her at Weißensee, the Jewish cemetery in Berlin. For Eugen, his wife’s death is a devastating loss. He sits with Eva on a bench that he has installed opposite his wife’s gravestone; the inscription reads, “Nun hast du uns den ersten Schmerz getan, der aber traf” (“Now you have caused us our first pain, but it struck hard”), a line from a poem by Adelbert von Chamisso.

Eugen continues to work on his opera. The political tumult increases. In 1933 Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany and consolidates power. 8,000 Jewish businesses are shut down in Berlin.

Eva informs her father she is frightened and demands that they both leave Germany immediately. Eugen resists and says: “We are Jewish but my place is here. Everything I cherish is here! The music, the culture, my livelihood. And now that I have finished my opera, I have hopes that it will be performed – whether in another country, or even here!”

Distraught, Eva announces she is fleeing to Amsterdam to join her fiancée, Max Lowenberger, who has already escaped the anti-Semitism of Berlin. Eugen bids her a tearful farewell at the train station.

The persecutions against the Jews increase through staging roundups; defacing property; burning books; inflicting beatings; and forcing Jews to wear the Star of David and leave their homes and property.

Eugen remains in his apartment, somehow escaping much notice. He persists by writing to prominent musicians, also internationally, to have his opera music considered for performance. He writes to conductor Bruno Walter, who has now fled to Amsterdam. Walter replies:

“Dear Mr. Engel,
I have now seriously engaged with your opera. The impression of musical culture and professional skill has been confirmed.
Unfortunately.... I regret to say that I cannot advocate for the work.
Yours faithfully,
Bruno Walter”

In 1938 the Nazis carry out pogroms against Jews across Germany. In the violent, coordinated, infamous, and brutal Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), Eugen realizes the cultural nation he has worked so hard to be part of no longer exists.

Grete Minde’s Spirit exclaims to herself, “This happened to me. My dear Eugen – you must flee!”

Eugen flees to Amsterdam. He joins his daughter and Max who have since married. Eva and Max emigrate to the USA with their son Claude. She carefully gathers copies of Eugen’s music, including the fully orchestrated score of the Grete Minde opera, to take with them. The family settles eventually in San Francisco.

Eugen, too, applies for immigration visas, including to the United States. But the borders have closed, and he cannot emigrate to the USA.

During this separation, Eugen writes his family long and detailed letters on onion skin paper, using up every inch of paper, every week from Amsterdam. After he no longer is allowed to buy new typewriter ribbons, he writes by hand.

In 1940 the German army takes over Amsterdam, and in 1943 the authorities capture and deport Eugen to a transit camp in Westerbork. Even then he does not want his family to worry as he sends his last letter via the Red Cross. To craft it in such a way to get past the censors, he writes, “My dear children, I am safe and sound and think of you dearly. Best regards, your father, Eugen Engel.”

On March 23, 1943, he is transferred with 1,250 prisoners via mass transport to the Sobibor extermination camp, where three days later, on March 26, at the age of 67, the Nazis murder him in the gas chambers.

Grete’s Spirit observes the murders and burning of bodies in horror. Her Spirit weeps for the victims and flees the unimaginable repetition of these crimes.

Eva meanwhile has bought a piano, hoping for her father’s arrival in San Francisco. It is the one possession she knows he will want to have when he makes it to the United States. But Eugen never arrives. On learning the news of his murder, she is completely devastated. For the following decades, she avoids talking much about the past. It is too painful to recall the horror and the pain of leaving her father behind. She stores Eugen’s papers in a trunk where they remain for the next 80 years.

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ACT THREE – WINGS TAKE FLIGHT [Narrative outline]

Grete’s Spirit is pulled through time and space to San Francisco where her fate becomes even more deeply linked to Eugen’s. She sees a series of crucial events.

70 years after Eugen’s murder, in a dusty, dark basement in San Francisco, a woman opens an old trunk. Inside, Jan Agee, Eugen’s granddaughter, discovers Eugen’s music and his letters.

Jan is inspired to bring his music into the world! She and her family travel to Berlin in 2019 to install a brass Stolperstein for Eugen in the pavement on Charlottenstrasse, where his apartment was located before the building was destroyed in World War II.

Here Jan organizes an intimate performance of Eugen’s music. Prior to the performance, she shares some of the opera’s music with a German musician who forwards Eugen’s score to a world-renowned conductor and composer, Anna Skryleva, in Magdeburg, a town near Berlin.

Anna plays the music on her piano. She is amazed:
"I played through the piece and sang it through and was immediately enthusiastic. You hear folk music, echoes of Wagner's Parsifal and Strauss' Rosenkavalier, of Erich Wolfgang Korngold or Albert Dietrich's Robin Hood…” says Anna.

She and her colleagues at Theater Magdeburg are excited to produce Eugen’s opera, investing over 100,000 Euros. They begin preparations, but the Covid pandemic shutdown delays them. As soon as possible, they resume. Grete’s Spirit is thrilled to watch 150 artists prepare the production just as Eugen and Eva always dreamed. Grete delights in the opera’s colorful theatricality and understands how they adapt the story to be relevant today.

Theater Magdeburg premiers the opera in 2022. Jan’s family attends, along with a curious audience, more accustomed to the classics. Anna recalls almost weeping on stage, when she conducts the opera’s third act before Grete Minde perishes. At the final curtain, thunderous applause erupts, and many in the audience have tears in their eyes.

Grete’s Spirit watches and weeps, mixing joy with sorrow. She treasures Eugen’s success. He is now a recognized world-class composer. She basks in the audience’s recognition of the wrongs done to her, and their acceptance of her as a woman who was owed justice. After 400 years, her Spirit finds closure and has hope for the future. They both are no longer outcasts.

The opera team, Olivia Fuchs, stage director; Ulrike Schröder, chief dramaturg; Karen Stone, theater director; and Anna, as the conductor, express their appreciation of this previously unknown masterwork. In a series of interviews, they underscore the parallel of Grete’s and Eugen’s fates. “Engel” means “Angel” in German. The production drives home the parallel in several other ways: Grete’s character in the performance joins a traveling theater troupe, and she wears angel’s wings. A dramatic conflagration at the end of the opera, in which Grete perishes, and the town is destroyed, reminds audiences of Eugen and other victims’ cremation in the “ovens” of the Nazis, and the conflagration of war.

The artists talk about the opera’s contemporary relevance since “othering,” in the form of bigotry, misogyny, anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant political movements, is resurging in Europe and the United States, reminiscent of Nazi Germany and of what happened to Grete.

The performances attract international attention and public acclaim. Theater Magdeburg repeats performances of the opera in 2023 due to popular demand.

Olivia, the stage director, hopes the opera holds up a mirror for us all to see ourselves and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. Grete’s Spirit hopes people realize their common humanity.

The opera wins Germany’s Opus Klassik award for World Premiere Recording of the Year in 2024.
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The film combines:
- Historical reenactments
- Contemporary interviews with opera creators and scholars
- Archival footage
- Performance footage from the 2022-23 opera
- Spirit-Grete's through-line narrative