Verdi's Requiem in Terezin

[Sandra Layman <sandralayman...>]

This doesn't answer your question, Irwin, but there is a moving article in
the new "Forward":


http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.08.22/faces.html

Conductor Recreates Requiem of Musical Defiance

By MAX GROSS
FORWARD STAFF

Conductor Murry Sidlin was browsing through a table of used, tattered books
when he discovered a slender book about the Terezin concentration camp that
told an unusual musical story. According to the book, Terezin held a
disproportionate number of artists and intellectuals. One inmate - Rafael
Schachter of Prague - organized a chorus of prisoners. This chorus performed
Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem 16 times between 1943 and 1944 - a feat which, for
Sidlin, struck a particularly poignant chord.

After three years of research, trips to Israel, Boston, the Czech Republic
and New York, interviews with survivors and rehearsals with the Oregon
Symphony and the chorus of the Portland Opera, Sidlin has produced "Defiant
Requiem: Verdi at Terezin," part-concert, part-documentary, that will be
airing on 150 different public broadcasting stations across the country on
August 27.

[snip]

The irony of Schachter's choice of a Catholic requiem in a Jewish ghetto was
not lost on Sidlin, though he was puzzled by it at first. "Of all the things
that they could be doing, why do a work so steeped in Catholic liturgy?"
Sidlin asked. "I just tucked it away and wondered about this." And then it
dawned on him: "It really was one of those bolt-upright-at-4 a.m.
revelations: What if [Schachter] was using the text of the mass to symbolize
a strong message [to the Nazis]?"

[snip]



----- Original Message -----
From: "I. Oppenheim" <i(dot)oppenheim (at) xs4all(dot)nl>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Cc: <jewishshulmusic (at) yahoogroups(dot)com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 1:11 PM
Subject: Re: [JLM] Verdi (fwd)


> On Tue, 19 Aug 2003, Trudi Goodman wrote:
>
> > Verdi had friends in the Jewish Community.
> > That much I know. It's a well known fact.
> >
> > Trudi
>
> Do you have any references to books or articles or
> persons that may tell me more about this interesting
> subject?
>
>
>  Groeten,
>  Irwin Oppenheim
>  i(dot)oppenheim (at) xs4all(dot)nl
>  ~~~*
>
>  Chazzanut Online:
>  http://www.joods.nl/~chazzanut/
>


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