Opera Unlimited Announces 2022 Summer Camp Staged Production TRIAL BY JURY

The students of the 2022 Opera Unlimited Summer Opera Camp will present full-staged and costumed productions of two operettas, Hans Kràsa's Brundibár, and Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury, on July 8 and 9, 2022, 7:00pm, at the Sandia Presbyterian Church on Paseo del Norte in Albuquerque. Admission is free; donations to support Opera Unlimited's music outreach program for schoolchildren are requested.

This will be the 20th Opera Unlimited Summer Opera Camp, following a two-year hiatus due to COVID. Jane & Cy Hoffman direct the camp with Debbie Briggs (Musical Director), Raul Manjarrez (Accompanist) and Kiersten Johnson (Choreographer). Opera Unlimited was founded in 1990 by Albuquerque music professionals to enhance music education for New Mexico schoolchildren. Opera Unlimited also presents children's operas, performed by professional adults, at schools and libraries throughout New Mexico.

Brundibár - a children's opera, was written in 1938 by Jewish Czech composer Hans Kràsa with libretto by Adolf Hoffmeister. The name comes from the Czech colloquial word for bumblebee. A special performance of Brundibár was staged in 1944 for representatives of the Red Cross who came to inspect living conditions in the camp; what the Red Cross did not know at the time was that much of what they saw during their visit was a sham, and that one of the reasons the Theresienstadt camp seemed comfortable was that many of the residents had been deported to Auschwitz to reduce crowding during their visit. The opera contains obvious symbolism with the triumph of the helpless and needy children over the tyrannical organ grinder, but it has no overt references to the conditions under which it was written and performed. Although Brundibár has great historical significance, it remains, at heart, a charming children's fairy tale.

Trial by Jury - a one-act comic opera by Arthur Sullivan (music) and W. S. Gilbert (libretto), was first produced on 25 March 1875. Trial by Jury was the second G&S collaboration and the only one with no spoken dialogue.

The story concerns a "breach of promise of marriage" lawsuit in which the legal system is the object of lighthearted satire. As with most G&S operas, the plot of Trial by Jury is ludicrous, but the characters behave as if the events were perfectly reasonable.

The success of Trial by Jury launched the famous series of 13 G&S collaborative works. According to the theatre scholars, it is "probably the most successful British one-act operetta of all time".

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