Opera: Songs of Survival

OperX Ensemble is joined by the Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø Chamber Orchestra and the Jenny Lind Vocal Ensemble in a performance of "Brundib¨¢r," a children's opera by Jewish Czech composer Hans Kr¨¢sa. 

Performances will be November 16 at 7:30 p.m., and November 17 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

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"Brundib¨¢r" was written in 1938 but was not performed until 1942 when it premiered at the Vinohrady Jewish Boy¡¯s Orphanage in the Prague ghetto. 

Kr¨¢sa had already been sent to the Terez¨ªn concentration camp where he was the musical director of the Freizeitgestaltung, a group of prisoners tasked with organizing cultural activities for the camp. 

When the conductor of the original Prague production was sent to Terez¨ªn himself, he smuggled in a piano score to "Brundib¨¢r." From this and his own memory, Kr¨¢sa reconstructed the opera, taking into account the performing forces available to him in the camp. 

Beginning with a performance on July 23, 1943, "Brundib¨¢r" was performed 55 times in the Terez¨ªn camp over the course of the next year and a performance was central to an International Red Cross visit to the camp in June 1944, during which the visiting delegation was deceptively shown a healthy and happy Jewish population. 

As the war was nearing its close, Kr¨¢sa was taken on a transport that left Terez¨ªn on Oct. 16, 1944, and he was killed in a gas chamber at Auschwitz two days later.