Since 2021, Opera Holland Park has marked Holocaust Memorial Day in words and music, with a focus on the works of a generation of Czech musicians who were interned in Terezín, where they continued to compose and perform until they were deported to Auschwitz.
Introduced by the broadcaster and journalist Emily Maitlis, this year’s film features readings by the actors Samantha Spiro and Oliver Cotton, and music from soprano Elizabeth Karani and pianist-conductor Lada Valešova, alumnae of the Opera Holland Park Young Artists Scheme.
Viktor Ullmann’s 1944 Yiddish lullaby ‘Berjoskele’ and Gideon Klein’s 1943 arrangement of the Hebrew lullaby ‘Shechav Beni’ frame Michael Flach’s poem, ’A Concert in the Old School Garret’. The film opens with a reading of words by Primo Levi, taken from his 1947 memoir, ‘If this is a man’.
The film will be broadcast above at 6pm on 27 January, 2023. It will also be available to view on our YouTube Channel here.
Donations to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust are encouraged and can be made via hmd.org.uk
