Brundibár in documents and photographs

The programme for the 9 May holiday will include the opera Brundibár. On the eve of the première of the Russian version of the opera, the Fireplace Room is hosting an exhibition featuring documentary materials and children’s drawings telling the harrowing story of the original production of Brundibár in a concentration camp.

Brundibár, intended for children, was conceived by Czech composer Hans Krása. The opera tells the tale of a brother and sister, Aninka and Pepíček, who must fend off an evil organ grinder called Brundibár in order to help their sick mother. Rehearsals for the opera began in 1941 at a children’s orphanage in Prague, but by winter 1942, when the first performance was scheduled to take place, the composer had already been taken to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in the Czech fortress of Terezín. The children and employees of the orphanage soon followed. Nazi propagandists showcased the camp as a ‘model settlement’. To make it presentable to international commissions and create an illusion of the inmates’ general wellbeing the Nazis tolerated music, theatre, and other art forms there. Krása rewrote the score from memory. The première of Brundibár took place in Terezín in 1943. After the performance had been captured on film to be used in a Nazi propaganda reel, the participants were taken from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz and other death camps.

The exhibition in the Fireplace Room is based on materials from the archives of the Israeli historian Elena Makarova and the Jewish Museum in Prague. The exhibition will be open until 10 May.