PUSH (opera)

Last updated

PUSH is an English-language opera in one act, with libretto and music by Howard Moody.

Contents

The opera is based on events during the Holocaust in Belgium, specifically the story of Simon Gronowski's escape from a Holocaust train on April 19, 1943. [1]

Background

Gronowski escaped from the convoy in the aftermath of an attack from three Belgian resistance members. The title is a reference to the central event of the opera, Simon being pushed off the convoy by his mother, who died three days later at Auchwitz. His sister also died at Auchwitz.

The opera was created after Gronowski met Howard Moody at La Monnaine in Brussels. [2] Gronowski had been attending one of Moody's operas before they met. Gronowski said about this event: "When I told him my life had only been miracles, he wrote it down there and then and told me his next opera would be about me". [3]

Performance history

PUSH had its world premiere on Saturday 1 October 2016, at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, with the performance featuring an amateur choir. Gronowski was guest of honour. [4]

PUSH was performed at Speaker's House on Monday 28 January 2019. Speaker John Bercow described the opera as being a means of both "remembering and preventing a repetition of the Holocaust". [5] [6] [7]

During the Covid-19 pandemic, on 19 April 2020, 150 singers performed the finale of the opera on the 77th anniversary of the attack on the convoy. [8] [9] The performance included singers from all previous stagings of the opera, both from Belgium and the UK. [10]

Summary

PUSH tells of the escape of Simon Gronowski, from the twentieth convoy as an eleven year old boy in 1943. In the aftermath of the attack on the convoy, the prisoners are emboldened to attempt escape and Simon is pushed from the carriage. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)</span> Presiding officer of the House of Commons

The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the lower house and primary chamber of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The current speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, was elected Speaker on 4 November 2019, following the retirement of John Bercow. Hoyle began his first full parliamentary term in the role on 17 December 2019, having been unanimously re-elected after the 2019 general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Bercow</span> Speaker of the UK House of Commons from 2009 to 2019

John Simon Bercow is a British former politician who was Speaker of the House of Commons from 2009 to 2019, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Buckingham between 1997 and 2019. A member of the Conservative Party prior to becoming Speaker, he was the first MP since Selwyn Lloyd in 1971 to be elected Speaker without having been a Deputy Speaker. After resigning as Speaker in 2019 and opting not to seek re-election as MP for Buckingham in the 2019 general election, Bercow left Parliament. In 2021, he joined the Labour Party but was suspended in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz</span> Female orchestra at Auschwitz concentration camp

The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz was formed by order of the SS in 1943, during the Holocaust, in the Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp in German-occupied Poland. Active for 19 months—from April 1943 until October 1944—the orchestra consisted of mostly young female Jewish and Slavic prisoners, of varying nationalities, who would rehearse for up to ten hours a day to play music regarded as helpful in the daily running of the camp. They also held a concert every Sunday for the SS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attack on the twentieth convoy</span>

On 19 April 1943, members of the Belgian Resistance stopped a Holocaust train and freed a number of Jews who were being transported to Auschwitz concentration camp from Mechelen transit camp in Belgium, on the twentieth convoy from the camp. In the aftermath of the attack, a number of others were able to jump from the train too. In all, 233 people managed to escape, of whom 118 ultimately survived. The remainder were either killed during the escape or were recaptured soon afterwards. The attack was unusual as an attempt by the resistance to free Jewish deportees and marks the only mass breakout by deportees on a Holocaust train.

<i>The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas</i> 2006 novel by John Boyne

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a 2006 historical novel by Irish novelist John Boyne. The plot concerns a German boy named Bruno whose father is the commandant of Auschwitz and Bruno's friendship with a Jewish detainee named Shmuel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mala Zimetbaum</span> Belgian Jewish Resistance member (1918–1944)

Malka Zimetbaum, also known as "Mala" Zimetbaum or "Mala the Belgian", was a Belgian woman of Polish Jewish descent, known for her escape from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. She is also remembered for her lifesaving acts in favor of other prisoners during her captivity at Auschwitz and for the resistance she displayed at her execution following her being recaptured, when she tried committing suicide before the guards were able to execute her, then slapped the guard who tried to stop her, before eventually being killed. She was the first woman to escape from Auschwitz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leo Bretholz</span> Holocaust survivor

Leo Bretholz was a Holocaust survivor who, in 1942, escaped from a train heading for Auschwitz. He has also written a book on his experiences, titled Leap into Darkness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holocaust trains</span> Railway transports used in Nazi Germany

Holocaust trains were railway transports run by the Deutsche Reichsbahn national railway system under the control of Nazi Germany and its allies, for the purpose of forcible deportation of the Jews, as well as other victims of the Holocaust, to the Nazi concentration, forced labour, and extermination camps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mechelen transit camp</span> Former Nazi transit camp and a current museum in Belgium

The Mechelen transit camp, officially SS-Sammellager Mecheln in German, also known as the Dossin barracks, was a detention and deportation camp established in a former army barracks at Mechelen in German-occupied Belgium. It served as a point to gather Belgian Jews and Romani ahead of their deportation to concentration and extermination camps in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holocaust Educational Trust</span> British Holocaust education charity

The Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) is a British charity, based in London, whose aim is to "educate young people of every background about the Holocaust and the important lessons to be learned for today."

Events in the year 1942 in Germany.

This is a timeline of deportations of French Jews to Nazi extermination camps in German-occupied Europe during World War II. The overall total of Jews deported from France is a minimum of 75,721.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Holocaust in Belgium</span> Systematic dispossession, deportation, and murder of Jews

The Holocaust in Belgium was the systematic dispossession, deportation, and murder of Jews and Roma in German-occupied Belgium during World War II. Out of about 66,000 Jews in the country in May 1940, around 28,000 were murdered during the Holocaust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Gronowski</span> Belgian jurist, Holocaust survivor and jazz pianist

Simon Gronowski is a Belgian jazz pianist. He serves as president of the Union of Jewish deportees in Belgium.

Jonathan Sacerdoti is a British broadcaster, journalist and TV producer based in the United Kingdom. He covers stories relating to the UK and Europe, as well as terrorism and extremism stories, race relations, Middle East analysis and the British royal family. He is also a campaigner against antisemitism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Sobol</span> Belgian Holocaust survivor (1926–2020)

Paul Sobol was a Belgian survivor of the Holocaust who was active in Holocaust education in Belgium. He was widely known as one of the country's foremost "passeurs de mémoire" who spoke widely at schools. Born into a family of Polish-Jewish origin, Sobol spent several years in hiding with his family during the German occupation in Belgium before being denounced and deported to Auschwitz concentration camp on 31 July 1944 in the final convoy to leave the country. He was subsequently involved in the death marches to Gross-Rosen concentration camp and escaped on 25 April 1945 during a transfer to another camp. His parents and younger brother were killed during the same period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup</span> Nazi arrest of Jews in Lyon

The rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup was a Nazi raid and mass arrest of Jews in Lyon's Sainte-Catherine street by the Gestapo. The raid, ordered and personally overseen by Klaus Barbie, took place on 9 February 1943 at the Fédération des sociétés juives de France, then located at the number 12 of this street. To catch as many people as possible, the Nazis not only chose the day the Federation normally gave free medical treatment and food to poor Jewish refugees, but they also set up a trap by forcing arrested Federation employees to encourage further people to come to the 12 rue Sainte Catherine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lily Ebert</span> Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor (born 1923)

Lily Ebert is a Hungarian-born British writer and Holocaust survivor, who in recent years has become notable for her memoir and social media videos and media appearances documenting her life as a survivor of that campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacques Weisser</span> Public figure in the UK

Jacques Weisser BEM is a Belgian-born English trustee of Yad Vashem in the United Kingdom and former executive director of the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women.

References

  1. ↑ Salazar, David (15 April 2020). "150 Performers Join Forces for Message of Hope from Opera 'PUSH'". operawire.com. Archived from the original on 6 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  2. ↑ Boffey, Daniel (October 2021). "'Another miracle': boy's escape from Auschwitz train is made into opera". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  3. ↑ Gerrie, Anthea. "The shove that led to a 'Push' for survivor". www.thejc.com. Archived from the original on 6 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  4. ↑ "When cultures collide: new opera links 1066 with modern-day themes of invasion and loss". hastingsonlinetimes.co.uk. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  5. ↑ Harpin, Lee. "John Bercow warns of 'bigoted and evil' Holocaust revisionism after performance of opera". www.thejc.com. Archived from the original on 6 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  6. ↑ Morrison, Richard. "Review: Push at the Speaker's House, SW1". www.thetimes.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 October 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  7. ↑ "Speakers fall silent for PUSH opera". www.chichesterpost.co.uk. February 2019. Archived from the original on 6 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  8. ↑ "150 opera singers unite to mark operation to free Auschwitz-bound Jews". jewishnews.com. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  9. ↑ Bonneure, Kristien (20 April 2020). "77 jaar nadat Auschwitz-trein in België is gestopt, zingen 150 zangers virtueel samen opera over verzetsdaad". www.vrt.be. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  10. ↑ Phil, Hewitt. "Chichester and Bexhill singers join online commemoration of Belgian Resistance heroism". crawleyobserver.co.uk. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  11. ↑ "Push". operavision.eu. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.