Brundibár

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Opera dates
Title: Brundibár
Brundibár at the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh (2010)

Brundibár at the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh (2010)

Shape: Opera for children in two acts
Original language: German
Music: Hans Krása
Libretto : Adolf Hoffmeister
Premiere: 1) 1942
2) September 23, 1943
Place of premiere: 1) Jewish orphanage in Prague
2) Theresienstadt concentration camp
Playing time: about 30 minutes
Place and time of the action: A city street with a school, dairy, bakery, with the stands of the ice cream man and the Leiermann Brundibár, everyday life
people
  • Pepíček
  • Aninka, his sister
  • Brundibár, organ grinder
  • Ice cream man
  • baker
  • Milkman
  • police officer
  • sparrow
  • cat
  • Azor the dog
  • School children, adults ( children's choir )

Brundibár is a children's opera in two acts by Hans Krása ( composer ) and Adolf Hoffmeister ( librettist ).

Emergence

Brundibár was composed in 1938, rehearsed from 1941 initially under the direction of Rafael Schächter and performed for the first time towards the end of 1942 in the Jewish children's home in Prague . The musical direction was Rudolf Freudenfeld, direction and equipment was provided by František Zelenka - two performances have been handed down that had to take place in secret because of the Nazi ban on public performances for Jews.

After his deportation to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942 , Hans Krása wrote down the score again after the piano reduction; he was only able to take this with him to the ghetto. Almost everyone involved in the premiere had also been dragged there. Here the opera was rehearsed again and performed for the first time on September 23, 1943 - again with Rudolf Freudenfeld (musical direction) and František Zelenka (direction and equipment), the choreography was by Kamila Rosenbaumová . The opera was played 55 times and gave the participating children a piece of normalcy and joie de vivre. However, the roles often had to be re-cast, as many of the actors were deported to extermination camps. The Viennese Greta Klingsberg played the main role of Aninka and was able to survive. Ela Stein-Weissberger played the role of the cat in all of the performances.

The propaganda film Theresienstadt used an excerpt from the opera to pretend to doubting people how normal and happy the deportees lived. Hans Krása and almost all those who carried out the work were murdered shortly afterwards in Auschwitz .

action

Pepíček and Aninka, two poor siblings, want to get their sick mother the milk prescribed by the doctor, but without money they cannot get any from the milkman. You watch the organ organizer Brundibár, who receives coins for his music, and decide to earn some money with singing as well. But nobody listens to them, and Brundibár, angry about the competition, even drives them off the marketplace. When the two siblings go to sleep helplessly, a sparrow, a cat and a dog appear and offer their help to the children who are too weak against Brundibár alone. The next morning the three animals drum up all the children from the neighborhood. Together, Brundibár is driven from the market square. When the children now sing Pepíček and Aninka's favorite song again, enough money is raised for the milk. Brundibár tries to steal the money, but has no chance against the overwhelming number of children and animals. The finale of the opera consists of a triumphant march that appeals to friends to stick together unconditionally.

Even though the content of the opera is free of politics at first glance, surviving participants from Theresienstadt repeatedly emphasize that Brundibár, who is being chased away, portrayed Hitler for them, whom they could chase away in the opera by sticking together. In this respect, on closer inspection, the opera takes on a second, deeper level than the simple story of the children who need milk for their mother.

The solution of the conflict between the children and the organ grinder by means of violence alone appears to be pedagogically doubtful in a democratic society. It is understandable against the historical background of war and genocide.

layout

The opera contains 14 musical numbers and spoken dialogues. All parts are speaking roles with singing. In Theresienstadt they were all played by children except for the title role.

The instrumental line-up of the Prague version consisted of a flute , two clarinets , a trumpet , percussion , piano , two violins and a violoncello .

The Theresienstadt version requires a flute (also piccolo ), clarinet, trumpet, guitar , bass drum , snare drum , piano, four violins, cello and double bass . There is also an accordion on stage.

Rediscovery and performances

The process of coming to terms with the forgotten children's opera began at the end of the 1970s, when the Benedictine sister Veronika Grüters happened upon the subject of the opera while searching for the story of her family. She reconstructed a version of Brundibár based on a piano reduction in Czech and Hebrew and was able to realize the first Brundibár performance in Germany in 1985 at St. Ursula-Gymnasium Freiburg im Breisgau .

In 1992 the opera was staged for the first time on a professional level at the Bielefeld Opera, a discovery of the then dramaturge Frank Harders-Wuthenow, who translated the opera into German together with Matthias Harre. This translation was the version authorized by the music publisher Boosey & Hawkes , Bote & Bock , Berlin.

In 1994 the opera was performed in the Görlitzer Musiktheater. The Landesjugendorchester Sachsen (D), the children's choir Severáček Liberec (CZ), the boys' choir Jelenia Góra (PL) and students from the Augustum-Annen-Gymnasium Görlitz developed the work under the musical direction of Reinhard Seehafer . Following these performances, the French premiere of the children's opera took place in the amphitheater "Jean Cocteau". The director was Klaus Arauner , today General Manager at the Görlitz Theater .

In the mid-1990s, the organization “ Jeunesses Musicales ” under the direction of the then General Secretary Thomas Rietschel, initiator of the project, took on the opera and initiated pilot projects in cooperation with other institutions in which working aids were created for the performance of the opera. The highlight of this project were joint performances by the Tölzer Boys Choir , the Polish Nightingales and the Prague Children's Choir , which performed the opera in the respective national language in Berlin, Warsaw and Prague.

In 1995 the children's opera was part of a school and remembrance project with surviving contemporary witnesses Eva Herrmannová (she sang in the children's opera choir in Theresienstadt) and Herbert Thomas Mandl with the children's choir of the Tanzenberg high school from ARBOS - Society for Music and Theater in the Carinthian capital, Klagenfurt played for the first time in Austria in a production by Herbert Gantschacher and dramaturgy by the Bosnian poet Dževad Karahasan . The production then went on tour to Hallein (Austria), Erfurt (Germany), Prague and Pilsen (Czech Republic).

In 1996 the opera was successfully performed several times in a production by the Schwerin Conservatory in the state capital of Schwerin . The production later made its way to Odense , and in February 1997 the spectacular production was staged in Israel at Kibbutz Megiddo. Many contemporary witnesses such as Zvi Cohen and Ruth Elias were present at the performances. Filmmaker Heike Mundzeck portrayed the trip for ZDF. The director of the Conservatory Volker Ahmels worked for the project on the “Brundibár folder”, which was produced by Jeunesses Musicales Germany and made available to many schools and educational institutions.

In 1996 the radio feature Brundibár and the children of Theresienstadt was created by Hannelore Brenner-Wonschick with testimony from contemporary witnesses, which was published on CD together with the Brundibár production of the collegium iuvenum.

On January 26, 1998 Brundibár was performed by the “Brundibár Orchestra” and the children's choir of the Hamm Municipal Music School under the direction of Werner Granz in the House of History in Bonn . The orchestra and children's choir were created especially for this project. The occasion was the 60th anniversary of the November pogroms in 1938; Brundibár was composed this year. The rehearsal was carried out with the participation of Paul Aron Sandfort . The Danish trumpeter Sandfort was one of the Jewish children in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. He was involved in the performance of the children's opera in Denmark and put together an overture from Krasa's compositions . The performance attracted nationwide attention.

In 2005 Brundibár was performed by the Leipzig Gewandhaus children's choir. In 2010 he made the work heard in Israel. German and Israeli children were involved in the 2009 performances at the Gewandhaus Leipzig and the Jewish Museum Berlin . The cooperation partner was the Room 28 eV association, founded in Berlin in 2007 : the survivors of Zimmer 28 in the Theresienstadt girls' home participated as contemporary witnesses; an exhibition on The Girls of Room 28 was shown in Israel.

In 2007, the choir of the Hamburg High School Christianeum under the direction of Dietmar Schünicke performed the children's opera for the first time on the grounds of the former Theresienstadt ghetto . The roles of Pepíček and Aninka were cast by Til Lindner and Isabel Cramer, the role of Brundibár by Albert Chechne. The production was later recorded by the audio company in Hamburg's main church St. Trinitatis and, among other things, it was partially performed during a reading of Eva Erben's book I forgot , moderated by Günther Jauch .

The author Ernst Heimes wrote the play Mirjam Ghettokind for the Koblenz youth theater , which premiered on August 19, 2011 at Fort Konstantin in Koblenz . The play takes up the life and fate of the children and young people involved in the Brundibár performances in Theresienstadt and, in addition to rehearsals for the opera, also includes a complete performance of the same.

The children's opera is also performed in schools and theaters - partly as a piano version, more rarely in the full Theresienstadt orchestral version. Because of its running time of only about 35 minutes, the opera was occasionally framed with discussions with contemporary witnesses or the play about The Girls from Room 28 . The exhibition The Girls from Room 28 accompanied musical performances as a supporting program.

reception

Picture book

In 2002, Brundibár was adapted as a children's book by Maurice Sendak (pictures) and Tony Kushner (text). The references to the historical context of the performance history of the children's opera have been preserved. The setting is a small Polish town, the adults wear Jewish stars and Brundibár wear a uniform. However: Hans Krása and Adolf Hoffmeister composed this opera in Prague in 1938 and did not think of a concentration camp, not even of a small Polish town or a shtetl , as the children's book suggests, but of very simple children somewhere in a town Marketplace where the opera is set. To attach Jewish stars to them and to put Brundibár in a uniform means neither understanding the work from the spirit of its creators nor the history of the performance. The children who performed Brundibár in the Theresienstadt ghetto did not have to wear Jewish stars, and this was a very special moment of freedom for them.

Recordings

  • ARBOS - Society for Music and Theater , Choir of the Gymnasium Tanzenberg Brundibár Recording of the Austrian premiere by the Austrian broadcasting company ORF for the radio program Austria 1 ( Ö1 ) 1995.
  • Collegium Iuvenum Stuttgart , St. Eberhard Girls Choir.
  • Choir and orchestra of the Christianeum high school in Hamburg, 2007: Brundibár: Opera for children. ISBN 978-3-939375-34-0 .
  • Brundibár. Re-release of the German first recording. Choir and instrumentalists of the St. Ursula-Gymnasium Freiburg . Head: Sr Maria Veronika Grüters. Christophorus CHR 77318.

Documentaries

  • 1965, Walter Krüttner : The penultimate act . The focus is on a performance of the opera Brundibár by the Prague children's choir “Troja”.
  • 1995, Koschka Hetzer: Eva Herrmannová and the children's opera Brundibár Feature of the ORF for the Austrian premiere of the opera on May 8, 1995 by ARBOS - Society for Music and Theater in Klagenfurt .
  • 2014, Douglas Wolfsperger : Reunion with Brundibar : In 2014, a production by the youth theater group Die Zwiefachen was staged at the Berlin Schaubühne , in which the protagonists reflected between the scenes on the life situation of the children's actors at the time. The preparation and a visit with the survivor Greta Klingsberg from the original line-up in Theresienstadt is documented here.

literature

  • Hannelore Brenner-Wonschick : The girls from room 28. The authentic story of the children's opera “Brundibar”. Room 28 Projects, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-032090-3 (in connection with the traveling exhibition of the same name). Text and photo book for the exhibition, element of a teaching unit. Room 28 Projects, Berlin 2011. No longer available, new development in 2014/2015.
  • Hannelore Brenner: The girls from room 28. Friendship, hope and survival in Theresienstadt. , Droemer, 2004, ISBN 3-4262-7331-4 .
  • Ernst Heimes: Mirjam ghetto child. Play about the Theresienstadt ghetto and the children's opera “Brundibár”. Brandes and Apsel, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-86099-712-3 .
  • Kathy Kacer, Yvonne Hergane: The children from Theresienstadt. With drawings by Helga Weissová . Ravensburger, Ravensburg 2008, ISBN 3-473-58188-7 .
  • Tony Kushner , Maurice Sendak , Mirjam Pressler : Brundibar : Based on an opera by Hans Krása and Adolf Hoffmeister. Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 2005, ISBN 3-8067-5073-4 .
  • Helga Pollak-Kinsky (Ed. Hannelore Brenner): My Theresienstädter Diary 1943–1944 and the notes of my father Otto Pollak . First edition 2014, Edition Room 28, ISBN 3-0004-3804-1 .
  • Thomas Freitag: Brundibár - The way through fire. Regia, Cottbus 2009, ISBN 978-3-86929-013-3 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Brundibár  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Milan Kuna: Music at the limit of life. Musicians from Bohemian countries in National Socialist concentration camps and prisons . Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-86150-018-3 , p. 205 ff .
  2. ↑ a b Sofia Pantouvaki: Repetition and Performance: The Case of Children's Opera Brundibar Today. University of Chester, 2007, accessed May 11, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Information from Boosey & Hawkes
  4. ↑ Ralf Baumann: We wanted to sing, we wanted to live. In: Konstanzer Anzeiger of November 26, 2014, p. 3.
  5. ↑ a b c Robert Maschka: Brundibár. In: Rudolf Kloiber , Wulf Konold , Robert Maschka: Handbuch der Oper. 9th, expanded, revised edition 2002. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag / Bärenreiter, ISBN 3-423-32526-7 , pp. 361–363.
  6. ↑ And before death a song ( Memento from February 18, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ^ "Brundibár" - Austrian Premiere - Feature on YouTube , accessed on December 11, 2014.
  8. ↑ a b EDA 15: Brundibár - An Opera for Children / Feature: Brundibár and the children of Theresienstadt . Original sound radio feature 1998 by Hannelore Brenner-Wonschick on the EDA label, accessed on April 4, 2018.
  9. ^ Children's opera Brundibár in Israel on dw-world.de ( memento from August 2, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ).
  10. ↑ Brundibár Concentration Camp Opera: History of Hope. at dw-world.de , accessed on December 11, 2014.
  11. ^ Website of Room 28 eV , accessed on April 4, 2018.
  12. ↑ Erben, Eva .: I've been forgotten / [Hauptbd.]. Erw. Neuausg edition. Beltz and Gelberg, Weinheim, ISBN 3-407-78956-4 .
  13. ↑ Koblenz Youth Theater, link to the production ( memento of August 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on December 11, 2014.
  14. ↑ Room 28 Projects. In: www.room28projects.de. Retrieved November 26, 2014 .
  15. ↑ Koschka Hetzer-Molden in an interview with Eva Hermannova, member of the Brundibár Choir in Theresienstadt, youtube.com , accessed on December 11, 2014.
  16. ^ "Brundibár" - Austrian Premiere - Feature on YouTube
  17. ↑ brundibar-derfilm.de (December 24, 2017)
  18. ↑ Tagesspiegel.de , June 16, 2012, Torsten Hampel: The picture disturbance.
  19. ^ Reunion with Brundibar. In: www.lernen-aus-der-geschichte.de. September 8, 2014, accessed November 26, 2014 .
  20. ^ Reunion with Brundibar. In: www.schaubuehne.de. Retrieved November 26, 2014 .
  21. ↑ Film info on the director's page: Holger Krofczik2: Film info . Retrieved December 24, 2017 .
  22. ↑ ligaterezin.com
  23. ↑ deutschlandfunk.de , Ronny Blaschke , January 25, 2015: Death and Games