The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum has a collection of music manuscripts written, arranged and performed by the prisoners themselves. Damaged, complete and often overlooked, composer and conductor Leo Geyer has been working with the museum, survivors and historians to bring the music back to life. The results have been presented on a Sky Arts documentary [see YouTube] and BBC Radio 4 programme [available on the BBC website].
Now, Geyer’s company Constella Music will be presenting a staging of the music in The Lost Music of Auschwitz with choreography by Claudia Schreier, designs by Finlay Jenner and featuring soprano Caroline Kennedy and baritone Ed Ballard. To commemorate 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, this new opera-ballet will tell the stories of the prisoner orchestras and feature forgotten and restored music from the camp, with music including include marching songs embedded with hidden messages for fellow inmates, a sorrowful piece arranged and performed by the women’s orchestra, and a lullaby that clings to the distant memory of home and children.
The production takes place at the Bloomsbury Theatre, 3 to 7 June 2025. Full details from the theatre’s website.
