Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín, a profoundly moving multimedia concert-drama, combines the magnificent music of Verdi with video testimonials and narration, to tell the story of the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp (Terezín) who performed the celebrated Verdi Requiem while experiencing the depths of human degradation. With only a smuggled score, they performed the famous oratorio sixteen times, including one performance before senior SS officials from Berlin and an International Red Cross delegation. Conductor Rafael Schächter told the choir: “We will sing to the Nazis what we cannot say to them.”

Created and written by Murry Sidlin, Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín features a full performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem Mass, video testimony from survivors of the original chorus, segments of the Nazi propaganda film made at Terezín in 1944, and actors to relay the impassioned story of how and why these Jewish prisoners, who faced death every day, chose to learn and perform a Latin, Catholic mass during their darkest hours.

Will full orchestral accompaniment, conducted by Isaac Selya.

Featuring the following choral ensembles:
Northern Kentucky University Chamber Choir, Katie Barton, Director
Northern Kentucky Community Chorus, Stephanie Mitchell Nash, Director
Fluidity – A Creative Choral Community for a Cause, Rhonda Juliano, Director

This concert is approximately 115 minutes with no intermission.

Presented by arrangement with The Defiant Requiem Foundation, and in collaboration with the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center

Tickets will also be available at the door.
Terrace seating is used only for overflow, and will become available for sale only if the orchestra level fills up close to the performance dates.