In May 2015, I happened to visit Frankfurt am Main, where during my haphazard exploration of the city I blindly strolled into the building of the Bockenheimer Depot where a new opera was to premiere that evening. It was entitled “Am unseren Fluße” (By Our River), as I saw on the banner outside, and I thought it would be something ecological. I was more interested in the building than in the show, but the decorations of which I could get a glimpse from the lobby and an animated Bohemian crowd drew me in. It turned out to be a powerfully moving piece allegorizing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and by extension all human territorial conflicts of that kind, bringing out the absurdity inherent in all territorial claims, profiteering by third parties, humanity’s shared frailty, and love that transcends this all. Some reviewers later referred to it as a “Middle Eastern Romeo and Juliet.”

2015 年 5 月，我碰巧去了美因河畔法兰克福，在我随意探索这座城市的过程中，我盲目地漫步在 Bockenheimer Depot 的大楼里，当晚一部新歌剧将在那里首映。正如我在外面的横幅上看到的那样，它的标题是“Am unseren Fluße”（我们的河边），我认为这将是一些生态的东西。我对这座建筑比对展览更感兴趣，但是我可以从大厅里瞥见它的装饰，还有一群充满活力的波西米亚人群吸引了我。事实证明，这是一部充满力量的作品，寓言以巴冲突，进而延伸到所有人类的领土冲突，带出所有领土主张固有的荒谬性、第三方牟取暴利、人类共同的脆弱和超越这一切的爱。