Peter Nocella - String Quartet No.7, "Grynszpan"

Performed 01/28/2026 at Penn State Abington by the Meiravi Quartet: Igor Szwec, violin Greg Teperman, violin Peter Nocella, viola Vivian Barton - Dozor, cello Avi Nocella, guest narrator String Quartet No.7, "Grynszpan" is a presentation, in chamber music form, of Peter Nocella's opera of the same name. The opera, itself, is based on the historical backstory which culminated in the horrific event known as "Krystallnacht", the night of "Broken Glass", November 9-10, 1938, when, throughout Germany, Nazis and Nazi sympathizers unleashed a torrent of lethal violence and destruction against Jews, Jewish homes, businesses, and places of worship. It is now considered that this event marks the official beginning of the Holocaust and World War II. The story of the opera is concerned with how a Jewish young man, Herschel Grynszpan, 17, the son of a Jewish family in Hanover, Germany, is driven by Nazi repressive anti-Jewish decrees (the Nuremberg Laws) and drastic circumstances to murder the young German Diplomat Ernst Vom Rath, then serving in Paris, on Nov.7, 1938. In the immediate aftermath of Vom Rath's murder, the Nazis propaganda mill used this event as a pretext to launch their long-planned violent pogrom, "Krystallnacht", against Jews living in Germany. ©2026 by Peter Nocella