Back in December 2012 I reviewed the 500th performance of Dean Burry’s opera for children, The Brothers Grimm. On Wednesday I went to the 25th anniversary performance in the RBA.  It was packed; with loads of kids, some quite young.

It was a barebones affair; no costumes, few props, just a video screen, and it was sung off book though the singers; directed by Renée Salewski, acted as best they could in the circumstances.  Actually they threw themselves into it to the delight of the youngsters.  I especially liked Andrea Ludwig’s toothy wolf and Maeve Palmer being impossibly cute as all the fairy tale heroines.

The brothers were played by Alexander Hajek (veteran of the 2009 run) and Ross Mortimer.  Matthew Li played just about everything else.  And everybody was really very good, especially given limited prep time.  Just like 14 years ago Timothy Cheung was at the piano.

The work itself has worn well.  The libretto cleaves closely enough to the three tales included to please the kids and the purists while the goofy framing story provides some laughs for the adults.  Musically it’s remarkably sophisticated.  It’s not kids’ music at all.  There are some unusual and complex harmonies in the piano part and I often found myself listening to that rather than following the action.  No wonder it’s been so successful for so long.

The kids loved it and were very enthusiastic which really makes a case for taking works like this back into schools (eat my shorts Timothy Chalamet).  How else do we build a new audience?

Photo credit: Karen E. Reeves