Chichester holocaust opera remembers the late, great composer Carl Davis
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The show is The Last Train to Tomorrow which will be staged in Chichester’s Minerva Theatre on Monday, January 27 and Tuesday, January 28 as the Chichester Marks Holocaust Memorial Day committee marks its tenth anniversary. The piece tells the story of the flight of 10,000 children from the Nazis in 1938-39. Kindertransport rescue trains to London, such as the ones organised by Sir Nicholas Winton from Prague, carried the children to safety.
Nearly 40 young people from Bishop Luffa and the Prebendal from the age of eight up to 14 will sing and play the parts of the children, accompanied by a professional orchestra conducted by Howard Moody – and it will all come with huge poignancy. Holocaust Memorial Day on Monday, January 27 is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Tickets on https://www.cft.org.uk/events/the-last-train-to-tomorrow#dates
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Hide AdElizabeth said: “When it was performed in the cathedral, I think seven years ago, I was asked to help out with the teaching and the staging. I provided my university choir as extra voices and I got quite involved working with Carl Davis on that project. We struck up a relationship and did another couple of projects together.
“I was not aware that (producer) Jill (Hoskins) and (Chichester Marks Holocaust Memorial Day chairman) Clare (Apel) knew who I was or what I was doing when I was running around like a headless chicken! But I got a call from Jill asking would I like to come back and direct it this time. It all came together, someone who knew Carl, someone who knew the piece and someone who knew the space at the Minerva really well.
“I'm visiting professor of piano at the Prebendal. It's a music specialist school and there is a huge music department there. It's a really serious business there. I work there and I just thought that I've got one of the best choirs in town next to me. And I also thought about Bishop Luffa. They have a really talented performing arts department. These are two schools that I am involved with and they were just perfect for this.
“And I thought this was the perfect memorial to Carl. He shot from the hip. There was no pretence about him at all. But he was extremely kind and he loved working with and writing for children. When we did it before you could see the joy in his face when he was working with the children and they were singing. He was American by birth but he was great with the British humour. He was sarcastic with the children and they loved it. They thought he was great. He just got that sense of humour and the children really adored him. He had little nicknames for them all. He was funny and he was humble. And he is completely at the forefront of my mind as I do this now. It makes me quite emotional when I'm playing the piano and teaching the children some of the songs just to think of him and what we did but it also makes me feel happy to know that he would be pleased.”
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Hide AdAnd this is a crucial piece to stage right now, as Elizabeth says: in the current political landscape the word refugee can be spoken in so many different ways. Sometimes you hear it almost as a dirty word. Sometimes you hear it as an expression of pity but also it's a term of fear for some people and not just fear of refugees but fear of what they are fleeing.
“And I think amongst all that noise and the riots and the politicisation of everything we need to come back to what it really means to be a refugee especially for children so that we can educate them and allow them to educate their fellow children. And I think it brings it alive to have children playing these parts to other children – and to adults as well of course. But when they see these words coming out of the mouths of children like themselves, it really does humanise it and I think that's the thing. With refugees it is so easy to lose the human element.”
Tickets from Chichester Festival Theatre.
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