January 24 - 31, 2010

Brundibar and the Children of Theresienstadt

 

Co-presented by International Opera Theater

 

Brundibar (Czech for Bumblebee) takes an allegorical children's story about triumph over adversity and creates a universal message of hope for people of all ages who face adversity in their lives. Immortalized by Maurice Sendak in his book of the same title, the little masterpiece children's opera was written for an orphanage in 1938 by Hans Krasa, a Czech-Jewish composer born in Prague in 1899. Krasa was an inmate in Theresienstadt (a way-station to the gas chambers) prior to his death in Auschwitz in 1944.

 

The musical score of the opera was smuggled into Thereseinstadt by the young conductor Rudolph Freudenfeld. Together, Krasa and Freudenfeld organized 55 performances performed by children interred in Therseinstadt, with the cast changing as the performers were deported to Auschwitz. Of the imprisoned 15,000 children, only 100 under the age of 14 survived.

 

In 2006, The United Nations General Assembly designated January 27th International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Brundibar and the Children of Theresienstadt celebrates the lives of the youth who presented Krasa's opera.

 

The performers in this production are Philadelphia-area students ages 6 to 18. All children who wished to participate were welcome until the cast of 40 was filled. Opera singer/director Karen Saillant is founder and Artistic Director of Philadelphia's International Opera Theater. Celebrated pianist/composer Gianluca Erriu, from Ente Concerti Citta di Iglesias, Sardegna, Sardinia, Italy, is guest accompanist for these performances.

For more information, please contact International Opera Theater Artistic Director Karen Saillant at 215-545-4385 or brundibar2010@gmail.com.

 

International Opera Theater was established in 2004 “to encourage self-discovery and open avenues of communication among diverse populations, through the creation of new theatrical works and the revitalization of old, especially operas.” Since then IOT hasbeen commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra and The Rosenbach Museum and Library to create original works. In addition, for the past five years IOT has brought artists together from more than 15 different cultures to create five new operas in Italian, based on Shakespeare, for world premiere in Citta della Pieve, Umbria, Italy. All IOT productions, with the exception of Brundibar and the Children of Theresienstadt, are performed by professional actors and singers.

Photo Michael Mercanti.