BRUNDIBÁR |STAGE REVIEW
Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, Sat 22 June
Brundibár, part of Welsh National Opera’s Freedom season, is a simple story. Aninku and Pepíček’s father is dead. They venture to the market square where the ice cream man, baker and milkman are hawking their goods. The siblings (Penelope George and Alfie Jones) don’t have money to purchase the desperately needed milk for their ailing mother, so they do a song and dance to earn it, but no one can hear because of another busker, the organ grinder Brundibár. He’s a brute and chases them away so he can garner all the takings.
A sparrow, cat and dog (Megan Jones, Carys Davies and Anton Rogan, respectively) rescue them by recruiting more children to sing. Next day, they manage to drown him out and collect enough coins, but the bully steals the money. The feisty animals and children get the coins back so milk can be bought. All is well as they sing of help being everywhere, of taking a stand and lending a hand in friendship and solidarity.
In reality, there was no happy ending. For this is no ordinary children’s opera. There was an actual villain far more devious and destructive than a big bumblebee. Entering the theatre, guards individually draped the audience with a small yellow scarf, representing the yellow Star Of David. In this horror story we entered the concentration camp Theresienstadt (not realised because Bethany Seddon’s set of colourful buildings and youngsters dressed in innocent, simple clothing of the time).
Merchants took the form of cartoonish characters from bygone comics. Brundibár (Steffan Lloyd Owen) was a combination ringmaster and towering steampunk in platform boots. This town was all make-believe like the one the Red Cross visited almost 75 years ago to the day when they came to inspect the ghetto and were treated to a showing of the opera. This ‘model’ camp was staged propaganda that day, to show the world how well the Nazis were supposedly treating Jews. Not until the end, when barbed wire fences and lights flashed up in the background, were we brought back to the hideous truth.
The WNO orchestra expertly gave us composer Hans Krása’s light and dark score, while members of the WNO Youth Opera Brundibár chorus and guest artists beautifully sang Adolf Hoffmeister’s libretto. This production, by David Pountney, had an additional poignancy for Music Director Tomáš Hanus’ mother: Anna Hanusová, née Flachová, was imprisoned in Theresienstadt and performed numerous times in Brundibár. He spoke movingly in the short film shown afterwards and live, saying opening the score was difficult and he cried, but he wanted to bring the opera to life again for years. It was important for the children “to feel like human beings” and not a number who was supposed to die and more importantly to be creative, more important than bread and water, the conductor continued.
Children wished that, like his fictional counterpart Brundibár, Hitler would be defeated, and this hope carried them through the long, difficult days. Only because of a mistaken document was Hanus’ mother’s transport delayed – she lived, and this evening her son brought his eight children onstage. Most children from the camp productions were among the more than 14,000 children from Terezín who were murdered in the gas chambers. Singing together in Brundibár with their friends may have been their last happy memories. We were honoured to be present at a heartfelt, fitting remembrance to them. Never let this happen again and never forget.
words RHONDA LEE REALI photos JOHAN PERSSON