OSO recognizes Armistice Day
Ifirst learned about the 1914 Christmas Truce from the first World War from my Aunt Cecily, the wife of my dad’s cousin Woodburn. Cecily had five uncles, who all fought in World War I. Cecily shared many of the letters that were sent home over the course of the war.
I remember reading about the Christmas Truce where soldiers from both sides came out of the trenches to greet each other, swap stories and souvenirs and even to play some football. Only one of those five brothers, Art, survived.
I met great Uncle Art when I was a little girl, a man who never really found his place in the world after all that he endured.
The story of the Christmas Truce eventually became a French movie, “Joyeux Noel” and from there was turned into the Opera Silent Night by Kevin Puts which won the 2012 Pulitzer prize. (Incidentally, UBC Opera is presenting Silent Night this weekend and next in Vancouver). My cousin, R.H. Thomson eventually turned those family letters from his great uncles into a one-man play called ‘The Lost Boys”
In the aftermath of war we continually turn to the practice of art to make sense of what happened, to touch base with our humanity and to remember the sacrifice of the millions of men and women who gave their lives for our freedom.
In the Okanagan valley alone, 700 soldiers never made it home from World War 1.
Next weekend, we will honour the memories of those millions of soldiers and civilians who never made it home as well as those veterans who gave their service for our freedom I have always found Remembrance Day ceremonies to be very moving. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1918. It was to be the war to end all wars, yet we have yet to achieve that milestone.
In thinking about this significant anniversary, we wanted to honour it in our concert halls with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra. I wanted a piece that would reflect both the brutality and violence of war but also the promise of peace. It made sense to choose a Requiem, the Latin Mass for the Dead. This text that pleads for eternal rest, requiem aeternam, has been set to music by many different composers. It is Verdi’s towering Requiem that really fit the solemnity of this occasion.
Verdi was a dramatist best known for his operatic works like Aida and La Traviata. His Requiem is both terrifying and glorious, taking the listener from the power of the Dies Irae, Day of judgement, to the simple beauty and humility of the prayer for peace and rest. It is a piece of music that needs to be experienced live to truly feel what Verdi could express in his music.
It has been such a pleasure and a privilege to rehearse this amazing composition. With the combined forces of the Okanagan Symphony Chorus and The Musaic Vocal Ensemble led by Frances Chiasson, the 150 voices of the massed chorus are so ready to
take the stage. Our OSO will be augmented by eight trumpets in surround sound joining the other 65 members of the orchestra. Four guest artists, the best of Canada’s up and coming operatic vocal talent will lead us through this text touching on feelings of despair, triumph and reflection before coming to its hushed conclusion.
I hope that you will join us to experience Verdi, to reflect on war and peace, to think of all of those who lost their lives through armed conflict and those who were left behind to mourn them, and at the end of it to hope for peace.
Rosemary Thomson is conductor and music director for the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra.