Brundibár Children’s Opera

Composed in 1938 by Hans Krása, with original lyrics by Adolf Hoffmeister and English translation by John Abulafia

Music Director Mark Lawrence
Drama Director Brad Caleb Lee
Designer Fiona McKeon

Foreword

by Catherine Freda, Head of Learning & Participation at St George’s Bristol 

After four months of intensive rehearsing, we are delighted to be able to welcome you to our production of Brundibár!

It all started back in 2019, about a year after our last community opera project The Hall on the Hill, when composer, music director and long-time St George’s collaborator Mark Lawrence and I first discussed options for our next project. Mark had previously staged Brundibár in 1997; he visited the Czech Republic shortly afterwards on a Churchill Fellowship (WCMT), and wrote an historical report on the history of children’s music there. With the 70th anniversary of the start of the Holocaust approaching in 2021, it seemed a fitting time to revisit this spirited Czech folk tale where good conquers evil. The pandemic got in our way timings-wise but didn’t deter our determination to stage the opera, and we started work in earnest in January this year, with cast and crew in place a few months later.

Our young cast hails from across the city; some members sing in the Bristol Youth Choirs, some take part in acting programmes at Bristol Old Vic, some sing and act at school, and some simply fancied a go at something different. The members mostly range in age from 10 to 14, with a 17 year old ‘Brundibár’. As well as developing their singing and acting skills and growing in confidence generally, these wonderful young people have forged many new friendships, and we hope very much to entice them all back for future projects!

Alongside the rehearsals, we’ve been running a special project with Horfield CE Primary and their fantastic Year 5 pupils and teachers. You’ll see some of the children on stage, singing as a chorus; others have produced the amazing artwork and poetry you’ll spot around the venue. All have had the opportunity to take part in music and drama workshops with our project leaders, and the Year 5 children not on stage have been able to watch the dress rehearsal at the venue. A huge thanks to Kirsten, Laura and the team at Horfield for being so brilliant in entering into the spirit of the project and making their involvement such a delight for everyone.

We hope you enjoy our production of Brundibár!

Words & Music

Brundibár was written by Jewish Czech composer Hans Krása, with words by Adolf Hoffmeister, in 1938.  In July 1943, the score of Brundibár was smuggled into the Terezin concentration camp, where it was re-orchestrated by Krása for the various instrumentalists who were available to play at that time. The premiere of the Terezín version took place on 23 September 1943 in the hall of the Magdeburg barracks, and it is this version – with its interesting instrumental lineup including accordion and guitar – that we are using for our own performances almost 80 years later.

The translation we are using was written by John Abulafia. John played an important part in restoring Brundibár in the early 1990s, including writing an English performing version and directing Mecklenburg Opera in the first UK professional production of Brundibár, which was later screened by the BBC on VE Day 1995. If you would like to watch this version, please visit:

The Terezin Operas (Brundibar and The Emperor of Atlantis) – After Eden Arts Foundation

The video also contains a BBC documentary (1993) about the musicians and cultural life in Terezin, and information about After Eden’s Terezin Opera project for schools.

Art Triumphing over Evil 

Written by Mark Lawrence and based on interviews in 1997 with Zuzana Crouch, daughter of a Terezín survivor, and with Anna Hanusova, who played the leading role of Aninku in the infamous Red Cross visit to Terezin in 1944. 

This remarkable piece of music theatre had played a central role in the life of the community of Terezín in the war; during the Communist period however, the Holocaust had been underplayed and the opera remained almost forgotten. It was the combination of the Velvet Revolution and the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1995 which brought the piece once more to the fore, and the years after saw a massive surge of interest in the Nazi-termed ‘Entartete (decadent) Musik’ and culture of Terezín and the Jewish artists of the Holocaust period.

Brundibár is a thinly disguised allegory on the Nazi regime which had at the time of composition just overtaken Czechoslovakia. First performed in secret, it was not until 1941, when the tragedy of the Holocaust began to unfold, that the opera came into its own. Most Czech Jews were sent to Theresienstadt (Czech Terezín), a concentration camp near Prague which acted as a holding camp before transportation to camps such as Auschwitz. Terezín developed an exceptionally rich underground cultural life, and it was in these circumstances that the children performed Brundibár more than fifty times between 1943 and 1944. The most celebrated occasion was in 1944, when the piece was performed publicly in front of leading Nazi officials and International Red Cross visitors – for Terezín was the Nazis’ showpiece camp, sometimes referred to as the ‘Paradise Ghetto’, and the only one into which outside visitors were ever allowed.

Anna Hanusova, a Terezín survivor and later the Professor of Singing at the Janacek Conservatoire in Brno, had sung the main role of Aninku at the age of 12 in the Brundibár of 1944, a Nazi-supervised performance staged for a visit of the International Red Cross to Terezín. Anna spoke about the demanding nature of the conductor, the insistence on accuracy and full commitment at all costs. This performance of Brundibár was a lavish affair, with no expense spared to paint a picture to the outside world of Terezin’s thriving cultural life – an impressive theatre was erected in Terezin’s town square and the most extravagant stage set built, providing a truly extraordinary piece of propaganda.

Life in Terezín was, of course, no paradise. The adults were aware of their likely deportations east and tried to protect the children from knowledge of this as best they could. By staging Brundibár they helped give themselves the courage to endure their fate, for the tunes were regularly hummed by all the Jews in Terezín, often directly in the faces of the uncomprehending Nazi guards. Moreover, they were telling themselves that Hitler would eventually be defeated, as with Brundibár in the opera.

Brundibár and the legend of its performance lives on, a remarkable case of art triumphing over evil.

He Never Lost Hope

An account of life in Theresienstadt (Terezín), written by cast member Hattie with important contributions from sister Tilly, and based on a recent interview with their granny Joyce, who had learnt of Theresienstadt as a child from her own grandfather Daniel. 

Throughout history people in power have disliked and mistreated other groups that don’t share their appearance or religion. For instance, in the Second World War, the Nazis, who had conquered much of Europe, wanted to kill all the Jewish people, as well as other people they didn’t like. Our Mum’s great grandparents were Jewish and they got caught up in all this.

The composer of Brundibár, Hans Krása, was also Jewish, and he originally composed the opera for a competition in Prague. The story was based on Hansel and Gretel, folk tales and the political situation at the time. Unfortunately, the competition was cancelled for political reasons. However, Krása still managed to produce Brundibár and the first performance took place secretly in a Jewish orphanage in Prague in 1942, with a limited audience of 150 people. The children in the cast were Jewish and had been sent to the orphanage for their safety when their parents began to be persecuted.

By the following summer, Krása, his set designer, the orphanage staff and nearly all the children of the original cast had been sent to a concentration camp called Terezín. Our great-great grandparents, Jenny and Daniel, referred to it by its German name, “Theresienstadt” (pronounced te-ray-zee-en-shtaht). They were sent there a few months after the children arrived, just before Jenny’s 66th birthday. Daniel was 72 at the time. Like most of the other inmates, Jenny and Daniel were imprisoned in Theresienstadt simply because of their religion. They were never given enough to eat. “Soup” was water with vegetable peelings in it. Their barracks were freezing cold in winter. There was no heat and they couldn’t wrap up warm in jumpers and blankets because they had only been allowed to each bring one suitcase from home. Sadly, the majority of prisoners at Theresienstadt died of TB, typhoid fever and more.

The camp had actually been set up to deceive the world and make outsiders think that Nazis weren’t as bad as everyone said. The Nazis pretended it was a resort for Jews to enjoy. Prisoners could do a few pleasurable things, such as playing music, but they were starved and forced to live in unsanitary, crowded buildings. The International Red Cross used to visit the camp occasionally to check on the prisoners and, each time, the Nazis would trick them by temporarily improving prisoners’ conditions. They would start providing proper food and would let the Jews put on special, public musical performances. Prisoners who were very sick would be sent away to be killed at other concentration camps so that the Red Cross wouldn’t see them.
Brundibár was first performed at Theresienstadt in September of 1943. Tilly and I hope that our great-great grandparents were in the audience because Jenny loved music and both of them would have loved the performance and been cheered up by it.

Our granny, who was their first grandchild, was born in safety a few months later but Jenny and Daniel didn’t even know they had become grandparents because it was almost impossible to stay in touch with the outside world. In September 1944, the Nazis arranged a special performance of Brundibár specifically to fool the Red Cross but sadly Jenny had died by then. She had always been proud of being Jewish and when Jews were required to wear yellow Stars of David on their clothes, she told her children it was a badge of honour.

Shortly before the end of the war, when he was 75, Daniel was finally rescued by the Red Cross. He weighed only 34kg (5½ stone), which was less than half his normal weight. He was very religious and had even had most of his teeth knocked out by another prisoner who was furious at him for refusing to abandon his faith.

Our granny had never heard of Brundibár until Tilly and I joined the cast and she was astonished by the coincidence. Jenny and Daniel would never have imagined that two of their great-great grandchildren would one day sing in this same opera in much happier circumstances. Our granny became very close to Daniel, who lived till she was a teenager. He often told her that his belief kept him alive. He never lost hope.

Jenny loved doing all sorts of embroidery. This needlepoint cushion cover is one of many things she made. Our great-auntie gave it to our parents when they got married.

Biographies

Mark Lawrence, Music Director

Mark studied Music with German at Bristol University and later, composition with Rhian Samuel at City, University of London, where he completed a PhD on the choral music of Estonian composer Veljo Tormis in 2013. As composer, Mark has written for many choirs and ensembles, as well as music for theatre and BBC radio drama. Together with writer Claire Williamson, he has specialised in large-scale community pieces involving performers of all ages and levels of experience. These include Coming Home (the story of Brunel’s Ship, the SS Great Britain), Home by Christmas (2014) and Home at Last (2018) marking the First World War centenary. The Hall on the Hill (2018) was commissioned by St George’s Bristol to mark the opening of their new building, and in 2019, Time and Tide marked the 150th anniversary of Clevedon Pier.

Mark is founder (with conductor Suzi Digby) and music director of Music Box Children’s Opera Group in Bristol; he is a former conductor of COMA Bristol, co-founder of Cosmos Children’s Choir (a St George’s Bristol flagship project), and continues to lead the Big Friendly (community) Choir. Teaching has included City University and the Junior Conservatoire at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. In 2018 Mark was awarded the Lady Groves Prize by Making Music for his ‘outstanding contribution to music in the community’.

Mark first conducted Brundibár with Music Box in 1997, and soon afterwards visited the Czech Republic on a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship. In Brno he met survivor Anna Hanusova, who sang the role of Aninka in the 1944 production.

Brad Caleb Lee, Drama Director

Brad is a visual dramaturge currently based in Cardiff. Combined with his experience as an assistant director at Welsh National Opera, Chicago Fringe Opera, and South Shore Opera, he is an international award-winning designer for theatre, as well as a producer, curator, spatial designer, editor, and teacher championing true collaboration to create connective audience experiences. He was the resident designer of Chicago Fringe Opera for 5 years and a regular collaborator with Bros Do Prose and the Summer Theatre of New Canaan. Other collaborators have included The Richard Burton Theatre Company, Kings Head Theatre, Elan Frontoio, Opera Sonic/Laura Drane Associates, Music Theatre Wales, Opera’r Ddraig, East Riding Theatre, Prague Shakespeare Company, Theatre Tuscaloosa, Hell in a Handbag, Filament Theatre, and The Monomoy Theatre.

In 2015, Brad co-designed Make/Believe, the British Pavilion for The Prague Quadrennial and its subsequent residency at the Victoria & Albert Museum London. In 2017 his work was an official selection to World Stage Design in Taipei, and in 2020 he curated and designed YOUR VOICE, an exhibition of over 400 pieces of work made by people across Wales to reopen the Wales Millennium Centre post-COVID19. He is the founding editor of ASCENDING, a digital magazine and platform giving voice to the next generation of scenographers, visual dramaturges, and performance designers. www.bradcaleblee.com

Fiona McKeon, Designer

Fiona McKeon (She/Her) is a Bristol based Production Designer for theatre, opera, dance and film. Over the last 10 years she has worked in theatres across the UK and Australia, as a Production Designer, Design Assistant and Costume supervisor.

She is currently undertaking professional development year in Bristol, completing the MA of Production Design.  At BOVTS she has designed Sammy and the Sea Morgans (Schools Touring), The City and Hamlet (Wardrobe Theatre) and Great Expectations (West England Touring).

UK Theatre Design credits include: Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Mojo, Jumpers for Goalposts and Beautiful Thing (Stanislavsky Studio, Questors Theatre) and When the Rain Stops Falling (Judi Dench Playhouse, Questors Theatre).

Australian credits include: The Return for Griffith University; Splendor in the Grass, August: Osage County and The Three Sisters at Gardens Point Theatre and Savage in Limbo at Studio Space 1, VCA.

With thanks to…

• Our project funders Newby Trust and The Marchus Trust, without whose generous contributions our Brundibár project would not have been possible
• Kirsten Cunningham, Laura Hilton, Emily Fletcher and the team at Horfield CE Primary School for all of their hard work in making the participation of Year 5 (performing and artwork) possible
• Claire Williamson for adding a wonderful creative writing element to the Horfield project
• Laurie Stewart for her invaluable support throughout the project and for allowing us to use the Beacon Music Centre for rehearsals
• All of the parents, carers and grandparents who have come on this journey with us, ferrying their young performers to and from rehearsals and being so brilliant at helping us sort the admin
• Samir Savant, Sam Marklew and the team at St George’s Bristol for the many ways in which they have supported this project
• John Abulafia and the After Eden Arts Foundation for helping us discover more about this work and its historical setting
• Halifax Theatre for Young People, Nova Scotia, for the kind use of their artwork for our publicity materials
• And finally, to the entire Brundibár team for going above and beyond to bring this show to life!