Recovered Voices: Staging Suppressed Opera of the Early 20th Century
UCLA Center for Jewish Studies and
The OREL Foundation
April 7 and 8, 2010 • UCLA
The Nazi regime was not only responsible for the destruction of millions of lives, but also for the suppression of countless works of art, literature, and music. These works, grotesquely termed “degenerate art” by the Nazis, were banned, and the artists, Jewish and non–Jewish, were branded enemies of the state. Thousands were murdered, some went into hiding, and some escaped. But even many of the “fortunate” ones were ruined by the trauma. Although by now this is a well–known story, it continues to unfold in its tragic details, and we are only beginning to truly understand the enormity of the loss.
The work of the historian is not only to document this loss; we can also make some small contribution to undoing this terrible story: forgotten artists and composers can be brought back to public attention, lost masterpieces can be retrieved. And great music can be heard again and enter into its rightful place as part of the repertory.
This conference, organized by UCLA Professor Kenneth Reinhard, is co–sponsored by the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies and The OREL Foundation and is inspired by the work of James Conlon and Los Angeles Opera's “Recovered Voices” project, an ongoing commitment to stage masterpieces of 20th–century European opera that were suppressed by the Third Reich. LA Opera's project has richly demonstrated that an enormous amount of this music—much of it by composers little known or unknown in America—is not only worthy of retrieval from the abyss of historical circumstances, but, by any standard, is great and capable of speaking to us urgently and eloquently today.
There will be no fee required to attend the conference or to attend either of the evening events, though advance registration will be required. Due to space restrictions, it may become necessary to limit the number of registrations; in that event, registrations will be handled on a first-submitted, first-served basis.
With any questions or to be included in future updates about “Recovered Voices: Staging Suppressed Opera of the Early 20th Century,” feel free to contact Olga Bezrukova:
To see the conference announcement in PDF format, >click here.