Antisemitism and Hate in Focus as New Score is Performed Oct. 29 with Rare U.S. Screening of 1924 Silent Austrian Film that Presaged Holocaust
Concert to Be Presented at Time of Rising Antisemitism and Hate Campaigns in U.S., Abroad
Milwaukee (Oct. 2, 2023) – With antisemitism and hate campaigns on the rise, Present Music’s first program of the 2023-’24 season Oct. 29 features “The City Without Jews (Die Stadt ohne Juden),” a 1924 Austrian silent film by Hans Karl Breslauer that presages the events of the Holocaust, with a new score from Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth.
The score will be performed live by the Present Music ensemble, conducted by Yaniv Dinur, as the film screens. The film, long believed to be lost, was discovered at a Parisian flea market in 2015 and digitally restored through a crowdfunding campaign. The Vienna Conzerthaus recently commissioned the score for the film.
“Present Music is presenting Die Stadt ohne Juden recognizing that we’re again living in a time of rising antisemitism, demagoguery and hate campaigns aimed at ethnic and refugee groups – with clear parallels to an earlier time,” said Present Music Co-Artist Director Eric Segnitz. “Experiencing this lost 1920’s film through the artistic sensibilities of contemporary composer Olga Neuwirth will hopefully promote dialogue and a reexamination of where societies can go wrong.”
The performance is part of the Die Stadt ohne Juden / The City Without Jews Project, a collaboration between Present Music and nine Milwaukee cultural partners. The project’s schedule of related talks, lectures, screenings, panels, and performances is at: https://www.presentmusic.org/die-stadt-ohne-juden-more-info
The concert also includes an interpretation of the Woody Guthrie / Lisa Gutkin song “Gonna Get Through This World” arranged for Present Music by Israeli composer Aviya Kopelman and sung by Wisconsin Area Music Industry’s (WAMI) Female Vocalist of 2023 Donna Woodall.
Bader Philanthropies is the concert’s presenting sponsor. The performances are in conjunction with the Milwaukee Art Museum exhibit “Art, Life, Legacy: Northern European Paintings from the Collection of Isabel and Alfred Bader.”
Tickets are available at https://www.presentmusic.org/events. In-person Present Music performance ticket holders also receive access to MAM galleries the day of the performance. The 7:30 p.m. concert includes a pre-performance panel discussion at 6 p.m. in Lubar Auditorium and a post-performance reception in Windhover Hall at MAM.
Based on the controversial and best-selling novel by Hugo Bettauer, H.K. Breslauer’s 1924 film adaptation of “The City Without Jews (Die Stadt ohne Juden)” was produced two years after the publication of the book, and, tragically, only a brief time before the satirical events depicted in the fictional story transformed an all-too-horrific reality.
Set in the fictional Austrian city of Utopia (a thinly-disguised stand-in for Vienna), the story follows the political and personal consequences of an anti-Semitic law passed by the National Assembly forcing all Jews to leave the country. Though darkly comedic in tone, and stylistically influenced by German Expressionism, the film nonetheless contains ominous and eerily realistic sequences, such as the shots of freight trains transporting Jews out of the city.
The critique of Naziism in the film is part of the reason it was no longer screened in public after 1933 (all complete prints were thought to be destroyed).
Score composer Neuwirth is an Austrian contemporary classical composer, visual artist and author. She gained fame mainly through her operas and music theater works, which often deal with topical and decidedly political themes of identity, violence and intolerance. She has served as a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna since 2021.
Score conductor Yaniv Dinur is the winner of the 2019 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Fellow Award and Music Director of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra. Dinur served as Resident Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony from 2015-2023. Born in Jerusalem, Dinur began studying the piano at the age of six with his aunt, Olga Shachar. He holds a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan School of Music and has won numerous awards.
Famed folk singer and writer Guthrie collaborated on over 100 Yiddish songs. In the late 1990’s, Guthrie’s daughter Nora parceled out lyrics for which no music existed to various artists, and the Yiddish-inspired songs went to the soul-stirring roots group, the Klezmatics. Gutkin, the group’s violinist, penned the music for “Gonna Get Through This World,” which reflects not only Guthrie’s awareness of Jewish culture, but the general fixation with the fleetingness of life during wartime years.
Song arranger Kopelman is a leading Israeli composer, born in Moscow, raised in Jerusalem and living in Tel-Aviv. Since 2014 she has served as the Composer-in-Residence of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Her works deal with themes such as the memory of the Holocaust, feminism, and the often-tragic role and struggles of an artist in today’s society. She holds an MA Summa Cum Laude in composition and is a Presidential Scholarship Ph.D. student at Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
Donna Woodall began her Milwaukee music career singing with top local groups, The Eddie Butts Band and Streetlife. She skillfully blends the musical styles of artists such as Cassandra Wilson, Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones, Tracy Chapman and Esperanza Spalding with elements of traditional jazz, blues and what she affectionately calls “soulful folk.” She has appeared with the Present Music ensemble as a guest vocalist regularly.
The newly commissioned arrangement by composer Aviya Kopelman of Gonna Get Through This World has been commissioned by the Laskin Family Foundation. The appearances of guest conductor Yaniv Dinur and guest vocalist Donna Woodall have been underwritten by the Laskin Family Foundation.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.
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