Concentration camp opera turns 75
CANADIAN CHILDREN’S OPERA TO STAGE BRUNDIBAR IN TORONTO IN MARCH
In the grainy film, a cluster of neatly- dressed children s t and t all . Some wear stage makeup, one sports a fake moustache and all sing in unison to a sea of fellow prisoners below.
The film was Nazi propaganda. The opera was real.
The Brundibar children’s opera, written by Jewish Czech composer Hans Krása, was first performed by children in a Prague orphanage in 1942.
A year later, it was smuggled i nto t he Theresienstadt concentration camp in German- occupied Czechoslovakia, where imprisoned children performed it more than 50 times. Now, on the 75th anniversary of the first performance, the Canadian Children’s Opera Company is bringing Brundibar to Toronto.
“A lot of people, right off the bat, are completely surprised by the story of this opera and the fact that this opera exists,” said Dean Burry, artistic director of the Canadian Children’s Opera Company. “People are kind of stunned by it.”
Burry had Brundibar in his sights two years ago when he was hired as artistic director. He admits eyebrows went up when he first shared his plans to recreate a children’s opera performed in a concentration camp, but Burry felt strongly about sharing the piece and its messaging.
The plot of the opera focuses on two children who need milk for their sick mother. They try to sing in the market to earn money but their attempts are thwarted by an evil organ grinder named Brundibar. The next day, a bird, cat and dog help rally all the children of the town to combine their voices to sing louder than Brundibar’s organ.
Burry calls the opera a “charming fairy tale” with a deeper meaning of unity. The messaging of standing up against a tyrant is “poignant” today, given the political climate in the United States and the humanitarian crisis in Syria, he said.
“The term ‘ Never forget’ comes to mind,” said Burry, referring to the oft- repeated commitment to remember the Holocaust. “It sometimes seems like we have.”
A production like Brundibar can help remind people of the reality and horrors of the Holocaust and world issues we must confront today, he said.
The actual camp where Brundibar was performed, Theresienstadt, was used by the Nazis as a propaganda tool; it was a place where propaganda films were shot and, after the camp was temporarily ‘ beautified’ and thousands of prisoners deported to reduce overcrowding, it was the site of a 1944 inspection by International Red Cross representatives, who declared conditions to be acceptable.
For a time, the arts thrived in the camp, but as many as 33,000 people died in Theresienstadt, many more were transported to extermination camps and approximately 90 per cent of the 15,000 children who passed through Theresienstadt later died in death camps, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.
John Freund, now an 86-year-old resident of Toronto, is one of the survivors.
“It gave us hope that perhaps we would all return to our homes and the war would be over … and we’d have a normal life again,” Freund said of Brundibar, which he saw as a 13- year- old in Theresienstadt. “Which of course, did not happen for most of us.”
Freund was one of the only members of his family to survive the Holocaust, he said.
He’s since seen performances of Brundibar all over the world, including New York, Prague and Toronto, in 1996. On March 3, he’ll attend the opening night of the Canadian Children’s Opera Company performance.
“This isn’t just a show,” said Joel Ivany, the opera company’s Brundibar stage director. “It brought so much joy and escapism for even the fleeting moments for either the kids who were in it ( in Theresienstadt) or the adults watching it.”
Ivany said the children’s opera and its history demonstrate music can serve a greater purpose than entertainment — it can heal and give hope.
That sentiment is expressed in an Oscar- winning documentary, The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life, clips of which will bookend the Toronto performances, said Ivany. The documentary focuses on Alice Herz- Sommer, the world’s oldest living Holocaust survivor before her death in 2014 at age 110. Herz-Sommer was a concert pianist who was interned at Theresienstadt alongside her son, Raphael Sommer, who performed in Brundibar.
Ivany said it’s important to remember real people experienced the Holocaust, especially as fewer and fewer survivors are alive to share their stories. He hopes Brundibar highlights the work of composer Krása, who died in Auschwitz, and reminds people of their good fortune to live freely in a place like Toronto in 2017.
The Canadian Children’s Opera Company will perform Brundibar on March 3, 4 and 5 at Harbourfront Centre Theatre, 235 Queens Quay West, Toronto. Tickets cost $33 for adults, $24 for seniors and $ 19 for students and are available online or at ( 416) 973-4000.