Brundibár

Brundibár,

a children’s opera with a libretto by Adolf Hoffmeister,
Music by Hans Krása

Icarus vs Muzak
conductor, Mimma Campanale

Children’s choir from Fondazione I Teatri
choirmaster, Costanza Gallo

director, Barbara Roganti

After “Brimborium” and “The Little Sweep”, a new children’s opera produced by Fondazione I Teatri will make its debut on the Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is in fact a beautiful fairy tale with a happy ending whose genesis is, however, painfully intertwined with the persecution of the Jews and the Holocaust.

The first version of Brundibár was in fact written by Hans Krása and Adolf Hoffmeister in 1938 for a competition organised by the government of Czechoslovakia. The competition was later cancelled, but in 1941 rehearsals began anyway in the Jewish orphanage in Prague, where it was staged in 1942. In the meantime, however, both Krása and the set designer who had worked on the rehearsals, Frantisek Zelenka, had been deported to Terezīn’s concentration camp near Prague, shortly followed by almost all the choir members and orphanage staff. Krása nevertheless decided to continue the rehearsals, managed to reconstruct the entire score from memory, adapting it to the instruments available in the camp, and in September 1943 the opera was staged in the concentration camp. There were more than fifty performances, but many of the protagonists, including Krása, were soon deported to Auschwitz where they eventually died.

The Story
Aninka and Pepicek decide to go singing and dancing in the market square to earn some money to buy milk for their sick mother. Hindering their plans, however, is Brundibár, an evil organ-grinder helped by street vendors and a policeman. With the help of a cat, a dog, a sparrow and the village children, the two brave boys manage to chase Brundibár away and bring their mother the milk she needs to cure herself.