"Exultant. . . . As the unlikely survival of this opera suggests, the joy and beauty that music and art express can outlast evil even when they cannot defeat it."—The New York Times
"It's a tale of the outrage and rebellion of even the natural world of dogs, cats, and sparrows against things as unnatural as injustice and poverty and the suffering of children. It's a story of good defeating evil. But its history is haunted by a single instance of evil defeating good."— Tony Kushner
Tony Kushner provides a new English libretto, and Maurice Sendak the design, for this Czech opera—a beautiful children's story extolling courage in the face of tyranny—that was first performed in a concentration camp. Just before the opera's 1942 premiere, its composer Hans Krasa was arrested and sent to Theresienstadt, or Terezín, a "model ghetto" that was in reality a death camp. After a copy of the score was smuggled in, Krasa took advantage of the large number of talented instrumentalists there to stage the opera with imprisoned children. Performed fifty-five times at Terezín, Brundibar is published here with Kushner's short play But the Giraffe, a sensitively drawn historical backdrop.
Tony Kushner's plays include Angels in America, Homebody/Kabul, A Bright Room Called Day, Slavs! and the book and lyrics for Caroline, or Change.
Maurice Sendak is the author of over a hundred children's books, including Where the Wild Things Are.
