Hans Krása

Hans Krása was born on November 30, 1899 in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary.

Krása had some performances in the United States and France in the 1920s and several of his compositions were published in Vienna and Paris.

His debut as a composer came with his Four Orchestral Songs op. 1, based on the Galgenlieder (Gallows Songs) of Christian Morgenstern. The work was first performed under Zemlinsky's direction in Prague in May 1921 and was widely acclaimed. There followed a string quartet, a set of five songs for voice and piano and his Symphonie für kleines Orchester, which was performed in Zurich, Paris and Boston.

In 1927 he followed Zemlinsky to Berlin, where he was introduced to Albert Roussel.

His major achievement, was the opera Verlobung im Traum (Betrothal in a Dream) after the novel Uncle's Dream by Dostoyevsky. This work was first performed at the Neues Deutsches Theater in Prague in 1933 under Georg Szell and was awarded the Czechoslovak State Prize.[.

Brundibár, a children's opera based on a play by Aristophanes, was the last work Krása completed before he was arrested by the Nazis on 10 August 1942.

Krása was sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto where he reworked Brundibár for the available forces, which was then performed 55 times in the camp and also features in the infamous propaganda film made for the Red Cross in 1944.

He is known for his work on Brundibar! (1995), Der vorletzte Akt (1965) and The Music of Terezin (1994).

His Three Songs after poems by Arthur Rimbaud, Ctyrversí, Vzrusení and Prátelé, sung by Christian Gerhaher, appear on the CD Terezín - Theresienstadt initiated by Anne Sofie von Otter, Deutsche Grammophon, 2007.