Rothschild's Violin (opera)

Between 1939 and 1941, the young Fleishman was one of Dmitri Shostakovich's most promising students at the Leningrad Conservatory, where he composed his first work, a one-act opera entitled Rothschild's Violin.

Setting his tale in an Eastern Europe shtetl at the end of the 19th century, Fleishman paid a musical homage to a world on the verge of extinction.

During World War II Fleishman joined the civil brigades formed to defend Leningrad and was among the first to be killed in action.

This work is represented by Boosey & Hawkes in the UK, Commonwealth of Nations (excluding Canada), Republic of Ireland, mainland China, Korea and Taiwan; and by Hans Sikorski for Europe.

Marta, lying in bed, reminds Bronza of their little fair-haired daughter who died fifty years ago while still a child.

In a long monologue, Bronza grieves for the waste of his life, for the destruction of the former woods around the town, and for his own mistreatment of his wife and of Rothschild.

Rothschild's Violin with Sergei Leiferkus, Konstantin Pluzhnikov, Ilya Levinsky, Marina Shaguch, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, RCA Red Seal 09026 68434-2 The film is about this opera and the dramatic circumstances in which this little-known work was composed.