Verdi "Manzoni" Requiem - Highlights

These excerpts are from the CityMusic Cleveland chamber orchestra's May 2, 2019 performance under the direction of James Gaffigan, as part of a Yom Hashoah, Day of Remembrance. The soloists were Sasha Cooke, mezzo soprano; Chabrelle Williams, soprano; Joshua Blue, tenor; and Raymond Aceto, bass. The performance, complete with Rabbi Jonathan Cohen's moving introduction, can be seen @ • Verdi: Requiem
"This special concert, on the Jewish `Day of Remembrance` (Yom Hashoah), commemorates the victims of the Holocaust.
"It recalls the sixteen performances of the Requiem in the Nazi concentration camp at Terezín (Theresienstadt), Czechoslovakia by Jewish prisoners who were allowed to carry on musical activities within the walls and barbed wire. The most extraordinary performance took place on June 23, 1944, when the Germans, trying to propagandize against the ominous reports about the camps circulating around the world, hosted a delegation of Swiss and Danish representatives from the International Red Cross.
"In preparation for the visit, the Nazis `beautified' the camp, stopped the transports to Auschwitz, found appropriate clothes (though no shoes) for the musicians, gave them a few extra rations, and ordered a performance of the Verdi Requiem, which the German officers would attend with their guests. Conductor Rafael Schäcter told his musicians, `We will sing to the Nazis what we cannot say to them.`"