SPIA Media Productions, Inc. and ArtsEmerson
present The North American Theatrical Premiere of 

THE CONSUL OF BORDEAUX

Alexandra Schmidt, a Portuguese journalist, travels to Viana do Castelo to interview the maestro Francisco de Almeida, who is going to retire. There she faces him with his real name, Aaron Apelman, which is not reported in official biographies.

The journalist’s curiosity makes the conductor recall a series of events that occurred in the remote month of June 1940, when, at the age of ten and still bearing that name, he was saved from the nazi persecution by the action of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux.

In those days, the consul is a torn man: he knows that the Jewish refugees need more and more visas to get to Portugal and leave from there to the New World; but he is hindered by Salazar’s document, the infamous Circular 14, which forbids the grant of visas to Jews. Rabbi Krueger’s pressure and the power of Sousa Mendes’ catholic beliefs prevail. The consul decides to disobey Circular 14.

The month of June 1940 turns into a long race against time, in which Sousa Mendes eventually issues 30 000 visas, as the nazi threat becomes more and more present. At the end of the long interview, Alexandra surprises Francisco de Almeida when she unveils the true reason of her trip to Manaus: to introduce him to her grandmother Esther Appelman, the sister the maestro thought he had lost on that distant year of 1940. The emotional reunion of brother and sister takes place under the sign of remembrance and courage: that of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the consul of Bordeaux.

---

Tickets