"Brundibar" Children's Opera

Originally performed by children at the Terezin concentration camp, this fairytale opera by Hans Krasa for the entire famly celebrates the triumph of the helpless over tyranny and the transformative power of art. Presented by Pacific Opera Theatre. Special guest, holocaust survivor Ela Weissberger, will also speak. Weissberger, who was born in then-Czechoslovakia, was just 11 years old when she and her mother, sister, grandmother and uncle were forced to live in a Jewish ghetto created by the Nazis in the fortress town of Terezin, near Prague. Krása wrote the opera before he was sent to the camp and created a scaled-down version of it from a piano score he smuggled into the camp. Weissberger was chosen to play the role of the cat ? one of three animals featured in the opera. Brundibár was performed 55 times in the concentration camp. Burr Cochran Phillips, musical director, James Haffner, stage director. Libretto by Adolf Hoffmeister, new English adaptation by Tony Kushner. By arrangement with Bote & Bock, Berlin and Boosey & Hawkes Inc.