Brundibar by Maurice Sendak, Tony Kushner - First Edition - Childrens Books, Opera, Concentration Camp, Terezin

A first edition of Brundibar: A children's opera written in 1938 and later performed by the children of the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. By Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak.

Written by Tony Kushner, illustrated by Maurice Sendak. 2003, stated first edition. Michael di Capua Books, an imprint of Hyperion Books for Children.

The beautiful, sweet music and uplifting story of Brundibar celebrate the human spirit in the face of evil, and the will to survive and live on.

Czechoslovakian composer Hans Krasa wrote the music for Brundibar in 1938, with a libretto by Adolph Hoffmeister. Krasa was eventually imprisoned at the Terezin concentration camp. Through his indomitable spirit, he reconstructed the opera to be performed by the camp's children, and it was performed over 55 times, until most of the children were gone.

The story: Fatherless, Aninka/Annette and Pepícek/Joe must find milk for their sick mother but have no money. To raise the money, they go to the marketplace to sing. There, they're chased away by Brundibár, the organ grinder. But Sparrow, Cat, and Dog, and the town's children, come to their aid, and they chase away the organ grinder and sing.

NPR: Brundibar and the Children of Terezin:
http://www.pbs.org/now/arts/brundibar.html

"Maurice Sendak was stunned not too long ago when he listened to the CD of a children's opera written by a Jewish composer in Czechoslovakia just before the Nazis overran his country. Sendak loves music — Mozart and Schubert especially — but he had never heard anything as sweet and haunting as this."

He was just as stunned to learn that the opera had been performed 55 times by the children in one of Hitler's concentration camps before most of them were sent to die in the gas chamber, along with the composer."

Sendak took the story to his friend, the playwright Tony Kushner, who had won the Pulitzer Prize for his own dark drama of love and suffering called Angels in America. And with Kushner writing the libretto and text and Sendak painting the pictures and designing the set, they produced first the opera and then the picture book…Brundibar."

"When ''Brundibar'' is performed nowadays...its history inevitably weighs on it. But the music itself is the embodiment of innocence and hope, with sweetly harmonized choral writing reminiscent of Zoltan Kodaly, as well as cabaret touches that invoke the spirit of Kurt Weill."

New York Times: In a Children's Opera, a Holocaust Connection
nytimes.com/2003/02/13/arts/in-a-children-s-opera-a-holocaust-connection.html

Condition*: Fine/near fine. The book is clean, crisp, and tight, and the dust jacket simply shows signs of a lonely life on a shelf.

*Based on guidelines from the Independent Online Booksellers' Association.

Etsy.com/shop/TheCharmedBookshop
Visit TheCharmedBookshop.com for more first edition children's books.