Mother Rachel and Her Children

A long-lost oratorio from Finland by Helsinki-born Jac Weinstein (1883-1976), this piece takes the viewer on a journey with scenes from the two thousand years of suffering of the Jewish people that culminates in the death camps of the Third Reich. Yet, the journey ends in messianic panoramas for a glorious future and an exhortation by the narrator ‘Go forward and don’t look back!’ The music of the oratorio ranges from classic Jewish cantorial repertoire to Yiddish folksongs. A central piece in the oratorio called Eyli, Eyli (My God, My God) and many of the choir arrangements are by Helsinki-born composer and conductor Simon Pergament-Parmet (1897-1969), who is known for working with Berthold Brecht in 1940 on music for his wartime drama Mother Courage and Her Children. A talk back will follow this event.

Audiences at this event will be filmed. By attending this event, you consent to your being filmed as part of the audience and the footage being used for a research study (sponsored and conducted by the University of York, United Kingdom) including analysis by third party data analysis services. This footage will remain confidential, and your image will not be published or identified. If you do not wish to be filmed as part of the audience, the research team will seat you in an area of the auditorium which has no camera coverage. Please refer to notices at the event for further information.