Brundibar

An allegory of innocence triumphing over evil, Brundibar is the tale of a brother and sister who must earn enough money to buy milk for their sick mother. To do so, they join forces with three talking animals and a host of brave kids to outwit the town’s sinister organ grinder. First composed in the ominous years leading up to World War II, this opera features Hans Krása’s original score, Tony Kushner’s adaptation of Adolf Hoffmeister’s libretto, and Maurice Sendak’s spectacular set design. Brundibar became a powerful protest against the Nazis, after being performed 55 times by the children of the Terezin concentration camp, and continues to inspire with its message of good overcoming evil.

For the New York run, Tony Kushner’s But the Giraffe, a Curtain Raiser to Hans Krása’s Brundibar, is presented in place of the previously announced Comedy on the Bridge. This new work of imagination is based very loosely on an actual event: the smuggling of the score of Brundibar into Terezin by its conductor, Rudolph Freudenfeld. It’s about a little girl who has to make a difficult decision.