BGS student Joseph Mason enjoyed taking part in a thought-provoking production with the Opera North Youth Company.
Joseph Mason, 12, of Otley, appeared as the police officer in the production of the poignant children’s opera, Brundibar, at the Howard Assembly Room, in Leeds and the Sage in Newcastle, the latter as part of the Brundibar Arts Festival.
The opera was written in 1938 by the Jewish composer Hans Krasa and tells the story of two children whose plan to help their sick mother pits them against an evil organ grinder.
Krasa was transported to the Terezin concentration camp after writing Brundibar and he re-wrote it from memory and adapted it for the instruments which were in the camp. It was performed as part of a Nazi propaganda exercise in 1944 for the Red Cross visit. Krasa was later taken to Auschwitz and died there in 1944.
Joseph, who also plays the viola, said: “We had the auditions, and I was given the part of the police officer, which was a bigger role than I expected to get as I was up against a lot of older actors.
“I do get nervous before I perform but it generally disappears once I start singing or playing.”
Rehearsals began in the autumn last year and the production was accompanied by players from the Royal Northern Sinfonia.
Last year during lockdown, Joseph and his brother Oliver took part in the National Children’s Orchestras of Great Britain’s first ever digital programme. Both boys reauditioned and will be taking part in the NCO ‘live’ courses this year.
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