Nice feedbacks regarding the issue (Silo Busting) of our 3rd CEE Semmelweis Conference (March 12-13, 2019) are coming not only from the healthcare community, but from people who are deeply involved in the Semmelweis story. I was especially touched by the feedback of Raymond Lustig, composer of the great Semmelweis opera: “It was obstetrician Ignaz Semmelweis who first busted the silo to work with pathological anatomy, and then busted the silo even more dramatically in working with midwives, which is what ultimately gave him his incredible insight”, says the composer. “I like what you say about hospital departments operating side by side but isolated. In the Semmelweis story the wards were literally side-by-side, and yet isolated not only by department but by gender, social strata, etc., until Semmelweis had the humility to look at what was happening next door.”
By the way – The much-anticipated Budapest premiere of Raymond Lustig’s opera “Semmelweis” took place on September 28th at Budapest Operetta-Theater (librettist Matthew Doherty). Lustig and Doherty’s work explores a mind in turmoil as a man is haunted by the voices of the mothers he cannot save. The authors describe the piece as representing a single moment in Semmelweis’ mind as he lays dying in the asylum. Directed by Martin Boross, the September 28th Budapest premiere was praised as “spectacular…a performance that provoked multiple catharses” and “a gripping and unique experience…one of the best theatrical productions of recent years”, says the journalist Zsuzsanna Szekáry from the newspaper Magyar Idök.
I agree hundred percent – only by watching this opera via video I was touched by the beauty of this piece, and I hope very much that Ray will bring it to Vienne within the next years.
Links:
3rd Semmelweis CEE Conference
Semmelweis Opera of Raymond Lustig
Little video with Raymond in Vienna (June, 2018)
