Krasa: Brundibar
) | Label: Christophorus Catalog: CHE 02112 Format: CD ST URSULA GYMNASIUM FREIBURG GRUTERSHans Krasa was a Czech composer who perished in the Holocaust. He helped to organize cultural life in Theresienstadt concentration camp. Bundibar, a children's opera based on a play by Aristophanes, was the last work Krasa completed before he was arrested by teh Nazis in 1942. Krasa was sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto where he reworked Brundibar for the available forces, which was the nperformed 55 times in the camp and also features in teh infamous propaganda film made for the Red Cross in 1944. In the chequered history of Brundibar it lay forgotten for several decades. A reappraisal was said to have started first at the end of the 1970's. While investigating her family history, the Benedictine nun and music teacher Maria Veronika Gruters, rather accidentally, came across the material of the opera. Showing great commitment she staged Brundibar with her student ensemble in German. The Benedictine nun orchestrated the children's opera for her student orchestra for the piano score, which was in the Czech of Hebew language, and wrote a German libretto. The German premiere finally took place in July, 1985 at the St. Ursula Secondary School in Freiburg.  Price: $14.98 |