Film depicts thriving cultural life in a Nazi concentration camp; precedes regional premiere of an opera composed by prisoners of Terezín at DU’s Newman Center

 DENVER—The University of Denver’s Center for Judaic Studies and Holocaust Awareness Institute will present “Music of Terezín,” a documentary revealing the active musical life of prisoners at the Terezín concentration camp outside of Prague during World War II.    The event, one of the film’s first showings in North America, will take place on Tuesday, Jan.15 at 6:30 p.m. at Lindsay Auditorium in DU’s Sturm Hall, 2000 E. Asbury Ave. in Denver.

Robert Elias, president of The OREL Foundation, which encourages interest in and the performance of works by composers suppressed as a result of Nazi policies from 1933 to 1945, will speak following the film.

The “Music of Terezín,” a production between the BBC and Czech TV, won Best Documentary prize at MIDEM in Cannes in 1993.  The screening is free and open to the public, but RSVP’s are requested to hai@du.edu.

The January 15 film screening sets the stage for the regional premiere of “The Emperor of Atlantis,” a 1943 opera composed by Viktor Ullmann and librettist Peter Kien while interned at Terezín. “The Emperor of Atlantis” is a bold and thinly-veiled satire on Hitler, in which Death personified goes on strike refusing to continue his work until the Emperor agrees to be the first to die. The Nazis, realizing the metaphor, immediately shut down rehearsals. Viktor Ullmann and Peter Kien were later sent to their deaths at Auschwitz.

The one-act opera is part of an evening of music and dance called “A Journey of the Human Spirit,” an unprecedented collaboration between Newman Center Presents, Central City Opera, the Colorado Symphony, the Mizel Arts & Culture Center, Ballet Nouveau Colorado and Colorado composer, Ofer Ben-Amots. The Jan. 16 and 17 performances will blend the Colorado premiere of Ullmann’s opera and Garrett Ammon’s world premiere dance set to Ofer Ben-Amot’s “From Darkness to Light.”

For tickets to “A Journey of the Human Spirit,” premiering Ullmann’s “Emperor of Atlantis,” visit newmancenterpresents.com

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Contact:  Jordan Ames
Email: jordan.ames@du.edu
Phone: (303) 871-2781