Defiant Requiem - The Documentary

Defiant Requiem, a feature-length documentary film, highlights the most dramatic example of intellectual and artistic courage in the Theresienstadt (Terezín) Concentration Camp during World War II: the remarkable story of Rafael Schächter, a brilliant, young Czech conductor who was arrested and sent to Terezín in 1941. He demonstrated moral leadership under the most brutal circumstances, determined to sustain courage and hope for his fellow prisoners by enriching their souls through great music. His most extraordinary act was to recruit 150 prisoners and teach them Verdi’s Requiem by rote in a dank cellar using a single score, over multiple rehearsals, and after grueling days of forced labor. The Requiem was performed on 16 occasions for fellow prisoners. The last, most infamous performance occurred on June 23, 1944 before high-ranking SS officers from Berlin and the International Red Cross to support the charade that the prisoners were treated well and flourishing.

With testimony provided by surviving members of Schächter’s choir, soaring concert footage, cinematic dramatizations, and evocative animation, this unique film explores the singers’ view of the Verdi as a work of defiance and resistance against the Nazis. The text of the Requiem Mass enabled them, as Schächter told the chorus, to “sing to the Nazis what they could not say to them.”

The Defiant Requiem Foundation collaborated with Partisan Pictures to produce Defiant Requiem. Conceived by Foundation President and Founder, Murry Sidlin, a distinguished conductor, educator, and artistic innovator, Defiant Requiem was written and directed by Doug Shultz. The Executive Producer is Peter Schnall, founder of Partisan Pictures.

Defiant Requiem was broadcast nationwide on PBS in the spring of 2013, on BBC4 in the United Kingdom in early 2014, and on France Télévisions in May 2015. The film was selected by DocuWeeks as one of only twenty documentaries nationwide to screen in theaters in New York and Los Angeles in August 2012 as part of this annual one-week showcase. Defiant Requiem was named Best Feature Length Documentary at the Big Apple Film Festival in New York City and was the runner-up for the Audience Award in January 2013 at the Palm Springs Film Festival. In 2014 Defiant Requiem was nominated for two News and Documentary Emmy Awards: Outstanding Historical Documentary Long Form and Outstanding Writing.

The famous German rabbi and philosopher Leo Baeck was sent to Terezín in 1943 where he became a spiritual leader and symbol of moral courage. Immediately after the war, he wrote a short essay about his experiences at Terezín which included an inspiring personal statement about the arts community in the camp:

In the sheltering darkness of the long evenings, they were together in the cold and gloomy attic of a barrack, close under the roof. There they stood, pressed close to each other, to hear a talk about the Bible and the Talmud, about Plato, Aristotle, Maimonides, about Descartes and Spinoza, about Locke and Hume and Kant or about days and problems of history, about poetry and art and music, about Palestine of old and today, about the Commandments, the Prophets, and the Messianic idea. All those hours were hours in which a community arose out of the mass and the narrowness grew wide. They were hours of freedom.

50TH PERFORMANCE
OF DEFIANT REQUIEM: VERDI AT TEREZIN

Since the world premiere performance on April 20, 2002, the concert-drama Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín has had an unmistakable and unique connection with audiences and performers alike. Everyone knew they were experiencing a different kind of concert – one that pairs some of the most astounding music ever written with an unparalleled story of human resilience.

On Monday, November 4, 2019, in Budapest, Hungary, that ‘different’ kind of concert celebrated a remarkable milestone: worldwide performance number 50. The venue was especially fitting – the sanctuary of the Reformed Church on Pozsonyi Street – a church whose “founding Reverend” Albert Bereczky was known for his efforts to help Jews in Budapest during the Arrow Cross era. This performance of Defiant Requiem featured the world-renowned Hungarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus led by the concert’s creator, Maestro Murry Sidlin. It was the third performance of the work in Budapest in the past ten years; on this occasion presented as part of the Opera’s 2019-2020 “Christian Spirit Season.” While that would seem to be an odd pairing on the surface, it was actually quite fitting. The season’s intent was to present works that “have either been inspired by biblical stories, or those that convey Christian ideas and values in more indirect ways, but also ones which debate them.” Surely, in a season that explores music inspired by the Christian liturgy, there is a place for the Defiant Requiem story of how and why a group of Jewish prisoners, who faced death every day, chose to learn and perform a Latin, Catholic mass during their darkest hours to deliver a message to their Nazi captors.

That Defiant Requiem’s 50th performance would occur as part of an unusual season is a fitting parallel for the arc this concert-drama has carved since the Portland, Oregon, premiere. Performances of Defiant Requiem have been realized not through one recurring model, but by seizing on many unique opportunities to share the inspirational story of Rafael Schächter and the prisoners in his chorus. Over the course of the last 18 years, performances have been presented by orchestras, community choruses, museums, festivals, Jewish community service organizations, and colleges and universities as special events, memorials, fundraisers, on subscription, and even at the invitation of a Cardinal!

The future of Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín promises to be as varied and inventive as its past. Demand for performances from presenters and audiences remains as strong as ever, bolstered by the concert’s historical success and invigorated by new initiatives including a version for piano, violin, soloists, and chorus that is perfect for smaller communities and venues; performances led by the next generation of conductors with guidance and instruction from Maestro Sidlin; renewed support for The University Residency Project, which helps remove the financial barriers to performances by academic institutions; and performances that use the Defiant Requiem story to foster conversations about contemporary issues including rising Holocaust ignorance and denial, anti-Semitism, and racism.

Each of Defiant Requiem’s first 50 performances has had a profound and lasting impact on the performers, audience, and local community who have experienced this powerful story live. We look forward to connecting with even more people with our next 50 performances!

THE

INCREDIBLE

STORY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE

TEREZIN VIDEOS and FILMS, TEREZIN

VERDI - REQUIEM 2010 BUDAPEST (DEFIANT REQUIEM)
ALEX201020102010 2014 (1.46.10)
Music by Giuseppe Verdi, Performance conceived by Murry Sidlin, May, 2010

Conducted by Murry Sidlin for national broadcast in Hungary, Budapest, Hungary

MAV Symphony Orchestra, CUA Chorus, Honved Male Choir, Angelica Female Choir

Soloists: Eszter Sumegi, Attila Feketa, Andrea Melath, and Gabor Bretz

Actors: Ilona Beres and Dezso Garas

Chorus Masters: Zsuzsanna Graf and Peter Drucker

PROMS 2016 - VERDI - REQUIEM
[MARIN ALSOP,
ORCHESTRA
OF THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT]
2016 (1.22.04)
Marin Alsop leads the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Proms Youth Choir in a performance of Verdi's Messa da Requiem. Featuring soprano Tamara Wilson, mezzo-soprano Alisa Kolosolva, tenor Dimitri Pittas, and bass Morris Robinson.
Recorded live
at the Royal Albert Hall
on September 9th 2016 as Prom 74.

MOSAIC TV SHOW -
THE DEFIANT REQUIEM -
VERDI AT TEREZIN, PART 2
MosaicTVShow 2011 (12.16)

MOSAIC TV SHOW -
THE DEFIANT REQUIEM -
VERDI AT TEREZIN, PART 1
MosaicTVShow 2011 (14.21)

HOLOCAUST
TEREZIN AND VERDI’S REQUIEM

DEFIANT REQUIEM
THEATRICAL TRAILER
PartisanPicturesTV 2012 (3.12)

Verdi’s
Defiant
Requiem

50th
Performance
of
Verdi’s Defiant Requiem,
at Terezin

TEREZIN
DEFIANT REQUIEM
Tom D'Antoni. 2007 Part 1 (8.47) Part 2 (7.19)

A TV story on composer/conductor Murry Sidlin's production of Verdi's Requiem as performed by the prisoners of the
Terezin concentration camp in Germany during WWII.

DEFIANT/VERDI REQUIEM EXCERPTS FEATURING ELENI MATOS
hgcoin 2011 (12.44)
Rare it is to see in one artistic expression high instrumental, choral and solo vocal art weaving together so much human history. First the modern effort resulting in this performance. Second, a homage to the Defiant/Verdi Requiem's singers -- those who themselves at that very time were suffering the Nazi holocaust. Third, the deep cultural/historical roots embodied in Verdi's Requiem itself.
Any one of them by itself would be impressive enough.
Together?"Impressive" hardly approaches it.