This work is presented in partnership and with permission from The Defiant Requiem Foundation and serves as a benefit concert for the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida. The work combines the magnificent music of Verdi’s Requiem with video testimony from survivors of the original Terezín chorus and footage from the 1944 Nazi propaganda film about Theresienstadt.

This concert is generously supported by the Ginsburg Family Foundation, Mary and Frank Doherty, Carla D'Andre & David Treitel, Valeria and Jim Shapiro, Alexis and Jim Pugh, and the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC). Sponsorship packages which include tickets to the event are available for individual donors, corporations, and foundations and can be purchased by contacting Opera Orlando general director Gabriel Preisser at (407) 512-1900.

Opera Orlando is proud to present the Florida premiere of Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín. This concert-drama tells the story of the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp (Terezín) during World War II who performed Verdi’s Requiem while experiencing the horrors of the concentration camps. With only a single score, they performed the celebrated oratorio sixteen times amidst the most horrendous of conditions.

The piece was conceived and created by The Defiant Requiem Foundation president Murry Sidlin, who will be on stage conducting the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, the Opera Orlando Chorus, and members of Orlando Sings. In addition to a full orchestra, and 150 member chorus, the work also weaves in actors speaking the words of imprisoned conductor Rafael Schächter and others who organized the performances in the camp.

Documenting Defiance:
a Requiem of Resilience

In anticipation of Defiant Requiem, Opera Orlando presents a FREE screening of the feature-length documentary film also entitled Defiant Requiem. 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 Requiem as a work of defiance against the Germans during World War II. A Q&A session with Maestro Sidlin will follow the film, which has a run time of 85 minutes.

Wednesday | September 11 at 2 p.m. + 7 p.m.
Alexis & Jim Pugh Theater
Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts

FREE and open to the public, but a reservation is required.
RSVP HERE

Defiant Requiem is presented in partnership with Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, Orlando Sings, and Jewish Family Services Orlando.