April 29, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … PBS and Oregon Public Broadcasting will rebroadcast the Oregon Symphony’s ground-breaking “Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin” on Thursday, May 5, from 9 to 10:30 p.m. in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day. This innovative performance combines the forces of the Symphony, Portland Opera Chorus, local actors and former Resident Conductor Murry Sidlin, who conceived, wrote and conducted the performance to honor Raphael Schächter, a choral conductor from Prague who organized and lead 16 performances of Verdi’s “Requiem” while interred at the Nazi concentration camp in Terezin during World War II.
“I must tell the story of an unsung hero, Raphael Schächter, who was a passionate conductor, a risk taker and a man motivated by music to serve humanity,” said Sidlin, whose innovative program incorporates dramatic reenactments, archival film, interviews with camp survivors and Verdi’s remarkable words and music. Sidlin’s “Defiant Requiem” reveals Schächter’s successful transformation of the traditional Catholic mass for the dead into a Jewish cry of liberation from the Nazis.
The performance recreates as closely as possible the space at Terezin where the audience of prisoners experienced the “Requiem.” Actors assist in communicating the political, philosophical and humanistic aura of Terezin, where the Nazis interred thousands of Jewish intellectuals, artists, writers and poets for propaganda purposes. Soloists in the performance include soprano Lisa Willson, tenor Philip Webb, mezzo-soprano Eleni Matos and bass baritone Gary Relyea. Also appearing in the broadcast with camp survivors Edgar Krasa and Marianka Zadikow-May is Eva Rocek, a singer in Schächter’s chorus. Murray Horwitz and William Friedkin served as creative consultants to the production, which was directed for television by Phillip Byrd.
Production funding for the PBS national broadcast of “Defiant Requiem” was provided by The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Fred Andrianoff Family and Public Television Viewers.
The Symphony first performed “Defiant Requiem” at the Portland Expo Center on April 20, 2002 where it was recorded for high-definition television. It was first broadcast on PBS on August 27, 2003.
Oregon Public Broadcasting is a statewide network of community-supported learning resources, including OPB Television, an affiliate of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and OPB Radio, presenting local news coverage and the programs of National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Radio International (PRI). The OPB Web site is opb.org.
For more information, please contact Carol Howard at (503) 977-7751 or carol_howard@opb.org, or visit the Symphony’s website at www.orsymphony.org.
