| Description: |
Composed by Ruth Fazal, Oratorio Terezin is a full length work scored for orchestra, children’s choir, adult choir, and three vocal soloists. Set in the context of the Holocaust, using children’s poetry which miraculously survived from the ghetto of Terezin, woven together with passages from the Hebrew scriptures, this piece explores the question so many ask in the face of human suffering: “Can God be found in my place of pain?”
Over 15,000 children passed through Terezin, of whom only one hundred survived. The poignant innocence of their poetry, set against the cry of ‘How long will the wicked exult?’ causes us to come face to face with the testing of faith, in the context of unspeakable human suffering and deprivation.
The musical style is both dramatically intense, and sweetly lyrical. The juxtaposition of the children’s and adult’s voices, along with those of the Voice of the Prophet, the Voice of God and the Voice of Suffering create the tension found in the midst of feelings of rejection and abandonment alongside the hope deep within the human heart that all will be well.
The World Premiere performance of Oratorio Terezin in Toronto in November 2003 was recorded live by Tributary Music on two CDs.
For more information, please visit www.oratorioterezin.com |
