Brundibár


Brundibár is a children's opera by Jewish Czech composer Hans Krása with a libretto by Adolf Hoffmeister, made most famous by performances by the children of Theresienstadt concentration camp in occupied Czechoslovakia. The name comes from a Czech colloquialism for a bumblebee.

History

Krása and Hoffmeister wrote the opera in 1938 for a government competition, but the competition was later cancelled due to political developments. Rehearsals started in 1941 at the Jewish orphanage in Prague, which served a temporary educational facility for children separated from their parents by the war. In the winter of 1942 the opera was first performed at the orphanage: by this time, composer Krása and set designer František Zelenka had already been transported to Theresienstadt. By July 1943, nearly all of the children of the original chorus and the orphanage staff had also been transported to Theresienstadt. Only the librettist Hoffmeister was able to escape Prague in time.
Reunited with the cast in Theresienstadt, Krása reconstructed the full score of the opera, based on memory and the partial piano score that remained in his hands, adapting it to suit the musical instruments available in the camp: flute, clarinet, guitar, accordion, piano, percussion, four violins, a cello and a double bass. A set was once again designed by František Zelenka, formerly a stage manager at the Czech National Theatre: several flats were painted as a background, in the foreground was a fence with drawings of the cat, dog and sparrow and holes for the singers to insert their heads in place of the animals' heads. On 23 September 1943, Brundibár premiered in Theresienstadt. The production was directed by Zelenka and choreographed by Camilla Rosenbaum, and was shown 55 times in the following year.
A special performance of Brundibár was staged in 1944 for representatives of the Red Cross who came to inspect living conditions in the camp; what the Red Cross did not know at the time was that much of what they saw during their visit was a show, and that one of the reasons the Theresienstadt camp seemed comfortable was that many of the residents had been deported to Auschwitz in order to reduce crowding during their visit.
Later that year this Brundibár production was filmed for a Nazi propaganda film Theresienstadt: ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet . All of the participants in the Theresienstadt production were herded into cattle trucks and sent to Auschwitz as soon as filming was finished. Most were gassed immediately upon arrival, including the children, the composer Krása, the director Kurt Gerron, and the musicians.
The Brundibár footage from the film is included in the Emmy Award-winning documentary Voices of the Children directed by Zuzana Justman, a Terezin survivor, who sang in the chorus. Ela Weissberger, who played the part of the cat, appears in the film. The footage appears again in As Seen Through These Eyes, a 2009 documentary directed by Hilary Helstein. There Weissberger describes the opera in some detail, noting that the only time that the children were permitted to remove their yellow stars was during a performance.

A "depraved" culture

Due to the anti-Semitism of the late 1930s, the Jews were prevented from attending any kind of concert or performance; they weren't even allowed to own a music player. It is strange to think that the Jews could aim to participate in any kind of performance or any form of art. Much less could they produce their own art, the one that was described as depraved and immoral. They could only participate in those performances and projects that were promoted by the Nazis, which usually were used to act against the Jews. The German soldiers used the art as another way of repression and torture, but it also offered the Jews a possibility to enlarge their life serving the Nazis. The Jews also used to make their own art stealthily, but in Theresienstad it was easier.
It was advertised as a "paradise for Jews" or a luxurious health resort, a gift from the Führer. After having succeeded in introducing their instruments in the camp, they started to do some secret performances among the prisoners until 1942.

Storyline

The plot of the opera shares elements with fairytales such as Hansel and Gretel and The Town Musicians of Bremen. Aninka and Pepíček are a fatherless sister and brother. Their mother is ill, and the doctor tells them she needs milk to recover. But they have no money. They decide to sing in the marketplace to raise the needed money. But the evil organ grinder Brundibár chases them away. However, with the help of a fearless sparrow, keen cat, and wise dog, and the children of the town, they are able to chase Brundibár away, and sing in the market square.

Symbolism

The opera contains obvious symbolism in the triumph of the helpless and needy children over the tyrannical organ grinder, but has no overt references to the conditions under which it was written and performed. However, certain phrases were to the audience clearly anti-Nazi. Though Hoffmeister wrote the libretto before Hitler's invasion, at least one line was changed by poet Emil Saudek at Terezin, to emphasize the anti-Nazi message. "While the original said,'He who loves so much his mother and father and his native land is our friend and he can play with us,' Saudek's version reads: 'He who loves justice and will abide by it, and who is not afraid, is our friend and can play with us.'".

Mecklenburgh Opera Production UK 1992

Mecklenburgh Opera Production: UK 1992. Mecklenburgh Opera brought Brundibar to the UK in 1992. The company's Artistic director John Abulafia created an English performing version. This was staged at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall in a double bill with another Terezin opera, The Emperor of Atlantis by Viktor Ullmann. John Abulafia directed, Anne Manson conducted, the cast was drawn from the New London Children's Choir. This production was filmed by the BBC, the TV director was Simon Broughton: it was shown on VE Day 1995.
Mecklenburgh Opera then revived the production at Stirling Arts Centre in 1995, the Janáček Festival at Hukvaldy in 1996. John Abulafia revived the production in 2002 with the Halle Orchestra. The cast was drawn from schools in Salford and the Halle conducted by Edward Gardner. It was staged as part of the opening celebrations of the Imperial War Museum North.

The Kushner version

In 2003, the opera was adapted into a children's picture book by Tony Kushner with illustrations by Maurice Sendak. Sendak emphasized the symbolism of the opera by drawing the character of Brundibár with a Hitler moustache. The book was named one of the New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Illustrated Books of 2003.
The opera was performed in 2003 at Chicago Opera Theater; directed and designed by Sendak, with Tony Kushner's libretto.
In 2005, the book was turned into a full production of the opera, with libretto by Tony Kushner adapted from Hoffmeister's. Sendak and Kris Stone designed the sets and Robin I. Shane designed the costumes for the new production. The opera premiered at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre where it was performed along with another short Czech opera, Comedy on the Bridge, with music by Bohuslav Martinů and libretto by Tony Kushner adapted from Václav Kliment Klicpera. The opera then moved to the New Victory Theater for its Off-Broadway New York premiere, and Comedy on the Bridge was replaced with a new Kushner play, But the Giraffe. But the Giraffe was about a young girl who was faced with the difficult decision of taking her beloved stuffed giraffe or her uncle's Brundibár score. It served as a curtain raiser for Brundibár. In 2005 and 2011, the children's opera was performed at the Victory Theatre in Evansville, Indiana.
In 2006, Brundibár and Comedy on the Bridge were staged by the Yale Repertory Theater in New Haven, CT.

Performance history

The opera has enjoyed increasing popularity in recent years, and has been performed in different versions in England, Czech Republic, Israel, Australia and across the United States. In 1995 in Germany and in Austria the opera was performed as a part of a school and memory project in cooperation with survivors from Terezín, such as Herbert Thomas Mandl or Eva Hermannová. The American premiere of Brundibar took place in West Hartford, CT on April 8, 1975; the world premiere of the English version, in the translation of Milada Javora and Joža Karas, was held in Ottawa, Canada on November 14, 1977.
Cherub Company London presented a fully professional UK production at the Riverside Studios, London, in 2001. The production was unusual inasmuch as the children's characters were played by adult actors. The remaining characters, including Brundibár himself, were played by actors on stilts, creating a nightmarish world for the children. The production was directed by Andrew Visnevski and was presented in a double bill with Kafka's The Trial under the title Degenerate! A double-fare to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust.
In 2006, students from the University of Texas at San Antonio performed Brundibár in Terezin itself, becoming the first American production to return the show to the site where it was originally performed.
Another American version first performed in 2006 seeks to put the history front and center. Entitled Brundibar: Hear My Voice, this version, which was a co-production of Tucson, Arizona's Arizona Onstage Productions and The BASIS School, uses the original Hans Krása score and Adolf Hoffmeister dialogue. Spliced into the opera are new scenes written by Colin Killick, a high school student who had studied Brundibár. These new scenes tell the history of the piece, depicting Hans Krása and others who worked on the piece in Terezin working on Brundibár, from the first performance of Brundibár in Prague in 1941 all the way up to the Red Cross performance in 1944. Apart from Krása, one of the most prominent characters in these new scenes is Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, the art teacher whose students in Terezin created the heart-rending holocaust children's artwork that has been shown throughout the world. In the Tucson production, all of the children's roles were played by middle and high school students and only the new roles were played by adult actors. The breaks in the original score were written to suggest that the audience are watching both the rehearsals for and the performance of Brundibár for the Red Cross.
The first performances of this version were on March 31 and April 1 at the Temple of Music and Art in Tucson, Arizona, under the direction of veteran touring actor Kevin Johnson. Killick was the associate director, vocal direction was by Ali Renner, and the orchestra was conducted by Martin Majkut. In addition to the new scenes, it also featured projections of artwork from camp inmates and photographs of Terezin, and a simple but powerful set that had as its dominating feature a large archway reading "Arbeit Macht Frei", which faced away from the audience to give them a sense of being in the camp. Ela Weissberger, a survivor from the original performances, spoke after each performance about her experiences in the cast of Brundibár and her thoughts as to its message. Similarly Killick spoke about the importance of history and said that "this happens to be about Czechoslovakia in the mid 1940s, but it could be about Cambodia, or Rwanda, or Darfur, it could be about anywhere there is oppression." For this production, the new scenes were done as a staged reading.
Weissberger said she thought the new material was very accurate and powerful and audience reaction was intensely positive.

Other performances

The Australian premiere of the opera was staged in 2000 in Canberra, in conjunction with the exhibition "Behind the Walls: The Theresienstadt Ghetto 1941-1945". It was also staged by the Windmill Theatre Company in Adelaide in 2003, in what was described as "a highly politicised" production. Both these productions were conducted by Richard Gill.
In December 2003 and 2004 respectively, Santa Monica College's Madison Project in conjunction with Los Angeles Opera run children's camp performed Brundibár at Miles Memorial Playhouse, the Museum of Tolerance, and the Santa Monica College 11th street campus, where has since been built. Survivors of Terezin were in attendance and spoke at all performances about their experiences.
In November 2004, Brundibar was performed by OzOpera, the touring arm of Opera Australia, as part of the Gandel Festival of Jewish Music. The first Melbourne performance was attended by Peter Gaspar, who had performed in the original Terezin performances as a child of 7. He survived the war and migrated with his family to Australia.
In 2005 and 2006, the Saskatoon Children's Choir performed Brundibár in Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg, Canada. Dagmar Lieblová and Dasha Lewin, Holocaust survivors and cast members of the original Terezin performances, were present at the Saskatoon and Regina performances, and addressed the audiences. They also visited several schools and spoke to many students.
A different version of Brundibár with scene design by Maurice Sendak opened in February 2006 at the Yale Rep before moving to The New Victory Theater in New York City.
Another version was performed in Salem, Ohio at the Salem Community Theatre in February, 2006 and also featured a visit from Weissberger.
Ela Weissberger took part in a performance of Brundibár to mark Yom HaShoah in Vancouver on April 30, 2008. The historic opera was presented by the Children's Opera Ensemble of the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.
In May, 2009, J*Company Youth Theatre at the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture, Lawrence Family
JCC, mounted a production of Brundibár which included, as its frame, the play Fireflies by Charmaine Spencer. The 80 minute play tells the story artist Freidl Dicker-Brandeis, her young students and the performance of the opera for the Red Cross for which she designed the sets.
It was performed in March 2009 at the Detroit Opera House by the Michigan Opera Theater Children's Chorus. The performance was attended by Ela Stein Weissberger. The work will again be presented at the Detroit Opera House, with Ela Stein Weissberger once more appearing in the production, on March 16, 2014.
Another version was performed in Greece in Kozani, from the Public Music School Choir on March 13 and 14, 2010.
Opera Fairbanks will present this opera November 5, 6 & 7, 2010 by an all-Alaskan, all-children cast. This will include a short presentation by Ela Stein Weissberger, who originated the role of the Cat and is the sole remaining survivor of the original Terezin cast. Musical direction by James Bicigo and stage direction will be by Cindy C. Oxberry of the Washington National Opera.
In February 2010, it was performed at Trinity School at River Ridge in Eagan, MN. The cast and the school were visited by Ela Weissberger.
It was performed by the Sacramento Children's Chorus in spring 2010, and the cast was visited by Ela Weissberger.
In May 2011 it was performed in London by the Alyth Children's Theatre on 2 consecutive days. The first performance was followed by a Yom Hashoah Commemoration Service and the second was preceded by songs from the Holocaust by the Alyth Youth Singers.
It was performed as part of the Colorado Music Festival's "Rediscovered Masters" program on June 28, 29, 2012 in Boulder, Colorado.
It was performed on January 13, 2012 by Tulsa Youth Opera, the youth training program of Tulsa Opera.
It was also performed on March 22 and 23, 2014 by the Northwest Boychoir at the Seattle Children's Theatre.
In April 2014, children from the Walworth Barbour American International School in Even Yehuda, Israel performed a total of six shows. Ela Weissberger, who played the cat in the original performance in Theresienstadt, spent time at the school, attended the rehearsals and performances and spoke to kids as well as the audiences. At the end of the show on April 2, Ela and 13 Holocaust survivors joined the kids on stage and sang the final victory song with them.
In May 2014 Brundibár was staged in Amsterdam by Nieuw Vocaal Amsterdam, as part of the yearly commemoration of the victims of World War II, in attendance of Ela Weissberger. Dutch public television broadcast a documentary around the performance, Theresienstadt, and Ela Weissberger.
In August 2014 Brundibár was staged in Sydney by Opera Prometheus and Joseph Toltz in association with the Sydney Jewish Museum. The production featured a reproduction of artwork by the child survivor Kitty Passerová Levy, with consultation from Theresienstadt survivors living in Australia, including Jaroslav Rind, who helped with the original construction of the set in Theresienstadt, as well as Edith Druckerová Sheldon and Joe Neustatl, both of whom had seen the production in the ghetto.
In February 2015, children from the Pembroke Academy Of Music based in Walworth South London, performed Brundibár in conjunction with the Mahogany Opera Group in the Purcell Room as part of the South Bank's Imagine Festival.
In June 2015, children from Norwich performed Brundibár in the Norwich Playhouse. Brundibár is produced by Mahogany Opera Group in association with Jubilee Opera and Watford Palace Theatre and presented in Norwich by the Young Norfolk Arts Festival and the Norfolk County Music Education Hub.
In September 2015, The Phoenix Boys Choir performed Brundibár in conjunction with the Arizona Opera.
Seventh grade students at the Arts Based School, a K-8 charter school in Winston-Salem, NC, annually stage a performance of Brundibár. Their most recent performance was held on Thursday, 22 October 2015.
In May 2016, Moran and Effroni choirs cooperated in Emek Hefer, Israel to perform Brundibár in front of schools and educational teams within the Holocaust Day.
On May 14 and 15, 2016, The National WWII Museum and The New Orleans Opera Association presented three performances of Brundibár along with a prelude presentation of Friedl, a short chamber opera that, based on Ela Weissberger's memories, conveyed a sense of what one of Freidl Dicker-Brandeis' classes was like. Ela Weissberger spoke after each performance.
On March 3–5, 2017, the Canadian Children's Opera Company presented Brundibár in the Kushner translation and Terezin orchestration at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. The production also included music from the Robert Evans cantata For the Children built on poems from the children of Terezin and clips from the short documentary film The Lady in No. 6, featuring interviews of Terezin survivor Alice Herz-Sommer. The production was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Performance - Ensemble in the opera division.
On November 15–18, 2017 the Boston Conservatory at Berklee performed But the Giraffe and Brundibar, directed by faculty member Rachel Bertone.
On December 2–3, students at the secondary school Choate Rosemary Hall performed Brundibar on their campus in Wallingford, CT. The cast had the opportunity to meet with Ela Weissberger.

Recordings

There are at least six CD recordings of Brundibár available: