Verdi's Defiant Requiem

The York Symphony Orchestra presents the Verdi's Defiant Requiem concert with in-person theatre seats and 48-hour digital access options. Tickets start at $11!

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín 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 depths of human degradation.

The concert-drama film combined with live orchestra of Verdi’s magnificent music highlights video testimony from survivors of the original Terezín chorus and footage from the 1944 Nazi propaganda film about Theresienstadt. The performance also includes actors and chorus who speak the words of imprisoned conductor Rafael Schächter and others.

With only a single smuggled score, the Jewish prisoners performed the celebrated 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.”