BRUNDIBÁR + 'IMPRISONED DREAMS' film screening

To commemorate the Holocaust Remembrance and Prevention of Crimes Against Humanity Day we present the opera Brundibár at Alfred ve dvoře Theatre.

“Brundibár is defeated, running far away, roll the drum, we won the war. For we were brave we won, with a jolly song on our lips and sang along our march. Those who honor the law and our native land are our friends and are welcome to play with us!”

A two-act opera for children titled Brundibár was written by the composer Hans Krása based on a libretto by Adolf Hoffmeister already in 1938. In August 1942 Hans Krása was among people transported to Terezín concentration camp, where he staged the opera with child prisoners within the Freizeitgestaltung programme. The premiere took place on September 23rd 1943 in the Magdeburg Barracks and has been reprised 55 times before September 1944. Segments of the performance are captured in the propaganda movie Der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt (The Führer Provided a City to Jews).

The Disman Radio Children’s Ensemble premiered a new staging of the opera on October 18th 1991 in Terezín during a gathering to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first transports to Terezín

Directed by: Zdena Fleglová
Live piano: Michal Macourek
Musical supervision: Eva Svobodová a Petr Mandel
Choreographic supervision: Ivana Helebrantová
Premiered on October 18th 1991 in Terezín

Screening of the film 'Imprisoned Dreams' by Miloš Zveřina will take place after the performance. Zvěřina's graduate film at FAMU is based on authentic child drawings made in Terezín ghetto under the guidance of the artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis between 1941-1945. The drawings are shown along black-and-white photographs of war-time Terezín and fragments of the opera Brundibár.