Campobasso, “In Auschwitz there was a female orchestra”: the initiative for schools.

At Palazzo San Giorgio an initiative for Remembrance Day which on the morning of January 28th will involve young third-year students from all the city's schools.

Di Marika Alfano il 24 Gen, 2023

Campobasso, “In Auschwitz there was a female orchestra”: the initiative for schools.

At the Council Hall of Palazzo San Giorgio, the Musical Theater Piece "In Auschwitz there was a female orchestra" was presented this morning which, due to its strongly educational values, the Municipal Administration will offer on the morning of January 28th, at third classes of the Comprehensive Institutes of Campobasso, in collaboration with the Walter De Angelis Friends of Music Association, on the occasion of Remembrance Day.

The press conference at Palazzo San Giorgio was attended by: the mayor of Campobasso, Robert Gravina, the councilor for culture, Paula Felix, and the Artistic Director of the Friends of Music Association Walter De Angelis, Antonella De Angelis.

“Memory is a human and social good to be cultivated through the attention that the institutions, jointly, must place at the center of their activities above all, but not only, on the occasion of moments of collective reflection on the atrocities of history which cannot and must never be justified or softened. – The mayor of Campobasso, Roberto Gravina, declared – Do it like this, how the Municipality of Campobasso has decided to do this year, directing the artistic and cultural project of the Friends of Music Walter De Angelis Association to younger people, with the significant support of the representatives of all the political forces present in the Council Culture Commission, takes on an undoubtedly stronger value."

“The play narrates the experience of the French Jewish pianist, composer, singer Fania Fénelon, deported to Auschwitz in January 44, who became part of the only female orchestra that ever existed in all the concentration camps of Germany and the territories busy. – explained the Councilor for Culture, Paola Felice – The orchestra made up of forty deportees, musicians of different nationalities, had the task of accompanying the prisoners to work at dawn and dusk, welcoming each new convoy to the camp and cheering up the moments of leisure for the SS officers, capable of being moved by listening to music and the next day sending the prisoners to the gas chambers. As municipal administration – Felice underlined – we decided to dedicate this intense and particular show to the students of the third classes of the city's comprehensive schools, precisely on the occasion of a day that, through moments of profound reflection on what the entire mechanism of extermination perpetrated by the Nazis during the Second World War was, wants to make memory alive and present, bringing back into the contemporary world a pain that must not disappear with a wipe of the sponge. This is the most direct intention of the Administration, as well as that of all the members of the Culture Council Commission, I want to point this out openly, ha supported with great cohesion of purpose and without political distinctions all initiatives aimed at tackling issues on the rights and dignity of life, always requesting vigilant attention in this regard."

It was January 44 when Fania Fenélon, a French musician, was deported to Auschwitz and since she knew how to sing and play the piano, she became part of the camp's women's orchestra, which had the task of accompanying the prisoners to work, dawn and dusk, welcoming every new arrival of deportees to the camp, cheering up the moments of leisure of the SS officers, capable of being moved by listening to music and of sending the prisoners to the gas chambers the next day. There were 47 of her ladies in the orchestra, as Fania recounted in her diary "In Auschwitz there was an orchestra", written much later, after her liberation. Coming from all over, stuffed into a confined space, an old shack near the railway where the convoys of deportees arrived, the orchestras were forced to undergo exhausting rehearsals to be able to play with dignity, because only in this way would they be spared the selection for the chamber gas. Throughout her detention, Fania fights hard to survive without ever losing her humanity, and thinking that surviving also means remembering "to let the world know". At the head of the orchestra was Alma Maria Rosé, violinist daughter of Arnold Rosé First violin of the Vienna Philharmonic from 1881 to 1931 as well as of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and the legendary Rosé Quartet. Alma's mother, Justine, was the sister of Gustav Mahler.

“As a cultural operator – declared the Artistic Director of the Walter De Angelis Friends of Music Association, Antonella De Angelis – I am convinced that art and music, due to their strong emotional implication, are a highly educational means for young people and a great opportunity to raise awareness for everyone"

During the show which will be offered free of charge to the students of the third classes of the Comprehensive Institutes of the capital, Saturday morning, January 28th at 11.30 am, at the Savoia Theatre, some pieces by composers loved by the Nazi leaders such as Puccini, Mascagni, Beethoven, Strauss, Brahms and others will intersect with the narration and dramatization of the protagonists. For years now, the OFM has been producing innovative multidisciplinary shows in which the orchestra embodies a real theatrical subject and has had great national resonance in the major newspapers. The piece that will be proposed in Campobasso has already been performed in various important theaters and contexts including EXPO' in Milano, Parma City of Culture.

The texts of the play are by Tiziana Di Tonno, Edmea Marzoli, Antonella De Angelis, Alessandra Portinari. Directed by: Tiziana Di Tonno, Antonella De Angelis, Alessandra Portinari. The protagonists are played by Susanna Costaglione, Alma Maria Rosé (Vienna 1906 – Auschwitz concentration camp 1944), Tiziana Di Tonno, Fania Fenélon (Fanja Goldstein 2 September 1908 – 19 December 1983). Antonella De Angelis will conduct the Mediterranean Women's Orchestra, with a stage set by Black Service.

THE FOLLOWING SONGS WILL BE PLAYED: