BRUNDIBÁR / VEDEM Tickets to Go on Sale at Opera Orlando

The Opera Orlando Youth Company takes the stage with an interwoven pairing of Brundibár / Vedem. Individual tickets are now on sale for Hans Krása and Adolf Hoffmeister's beloved children's opera and Lori Laitman and David Mason's Holocaust oratorio — two works born inside the Theresienstadt ghetto staged as one. They made art to resist. They made art to survive. Ooooh…art gives hope.

Vedem provides the frame for the production: the true story of teenage boys incarcerated in the Theresienstadt ghetto and the secret underground magazine of the same name they wrote in defiance of their captors. The libretto, by David Mason, incorporates the poems of Petr Ginz, Hanuš Hachenburg, Zdeněk Ornest, and Josef Taussig. Within that frame, Brundibár comes to life exactly as it did in the ghetto itself, where children imprisoned at Theresienstadt performed it more than fifty times. Brundibár is an uplifting fairy tale about friendship and unity, and one of history's boldest stories of resistance. Young Aninka and Pepíček must raise money to buy milk for their ailing mother by singing in the marketplace, but their efforts are threatened by Brundibár, an evil organ grinder. With the help of talking animals and neighborhood children, Aninka and Pepíček thwart and out-sing the bully, reclaiming the town marketplace for themselves.

Staged together, the two works do what neither can do alone — Brundibár's joy laid bare to Vedem's witness, the way the children of Theresienstadt actually held both truths at once. The young performers taking the stage this December, many close in age to the works' original creators, carry that forward.

'What I love about this cast of young singers is how much energy and actual joy they are bringing to this work. These are kids who love to sing, love to perform, love making each other laugh in rehearsal — and that coming together as a real troupe is exactly what makes this piece work. It's the same joy the children of Theresienstadt held onto, even as they understood exactly where they were. Our Youth Company holds both those things at once. They are kids being brilliant on stage, and old enough to know why it matters. That is truly the gift of this work,' said education director Sarah Purser.

Director Kaley Karis Smith, a 2023 winner of OPERA America's Women Directors Grant, makes her Company debut leading the production. Ms. Smith has directed and assisted across the country, including at Houston Grand Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Michigan Opera Theater, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Delaware, and Opera Omaha. She is joined by conductor Whitney Reader, also making a Company debut, whose international career spans opera houses in Germany, Denmark, and the United States. He is currently the general and artistic director of Wichita Grand Opera.

Studio Artists Sarah Kathryn Curtis, mezzo-soprano, and Benjamin Ruiz, tenor, lead Vedem as its central soloists, with fellow Studio Artist David Kahng, bass-baritone, singing the title role of Brundibár.

Brundibár / Vedem continues a relationship between Opera Orlando and the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida that was most recently showcased in the Company's 2024-25 presentation of The Defiant Requiem — itself the story of prisoners in the Theresienstadt ghetto performing Verdi's Requiem in defiance of their captors. This special performance raised $100,000 for the Center, and this December, that partnership continues with the Center providing historical context and educational support for audiences and performers alike.

'Every December, we do a show that belongs to everyone, priced so nobody's shut out, and built to say something real. Last year it was soldiers putting down their weapons to sing together in All Is Calm. This year, it's children who refused to stop making art inside a ghetto built to erase them. I love that this is our tradition. I love that it's our own Youth Company telling the story this time. This is exactly who we are as a Company and what the Orlando community needs,' said general director Gabriel Preisser.

Ahead of the production, Opera Orlando invites the community to Making History, a free screening of the documentary The Boys of Terezín — the true story behind Vedem, told through the recollections of five survivors of the magazine it was drawn from. The screening is free and open to the public at the Winter Park Library on Wednesday, October 7 at 6 p.m.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS

Brundibár / Vedem
Universal Orlando Foundation Theatre / Orlando Family Stage

TOUR DATES

• Saturday / December 12, 2026 at 2 p.m.
• Saturday / December 12, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
• Sunday / December 13, 2026 at 2 p.m.

Sung in English with English and Spanish supertitles.
Approximate run-time of ninety minutes with no intermission

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