In 1941, the deportation camp of Terezin was the scene of a sinister masquerade. In order to make the world believe that they cared, the Nazis allowed Red Cross visits to the camp and occasionally staged performances by incarcerated Jewish artists. During an hour of authorised music, Verdi’s Requiem has been performed several times on two pianos, with amateur choristers executed at the end of each performance.

This reconstructed Messa da Requiem by Verdi, the so-called “Terezin version“, will be performed in a free concert in the Grand Amphithéâtre of the Sorbonne on 28 October 2022. Under the direction of Salvatore Caputo, the Chœur de Paris, four soloists and two pianos will perform the heart-rending pages to “proclaim our refusal of all forms of hatred and discrimination, and to carry high the colours of tolerance and fraternity“.

Find all the dates of the Messa da Requiem by Verdi

(c) L’INSPE de Paris