Verdi wrote "Aida" for the 1869 opening of the Suez Canal, but it was not performed in Cairo until 1871. Do you need these facts when you listen to the opera? Not really. In fact, it makes not a whit of difference in the appreciation of the work. The opera is the thing, the historical context is ephemeral, inconsequential. How different this relationship is in the case of the Berkeley Rep's production of Hans Krasa's "Brundibar"! The history of the opera is overwhelming, all-important. It was performed by and for children in the Teresienstadt ghetto, eventually a terminal gateway to Auschwitz, where composer, young performers and audiences soon perished during the Holocaust. And yet, the work and the production must be seen - and reviewed - on their own merit, apart from those horrendous antecedents. Krasa was born in Prague, but he in the city's German community, and his education and career took place mostly in Berlin, where he became a student and protege of Alexander Zemlinsky. Recognized early as a conductor, Krasa was offered positions in Berlin, Paris, and Chicago. An eminently talented composer, he created a fine body of neo-romantic works, in spite of his tragically early death in the concentration camp, at age 45. It is ironic that today he is best known for "Burundibar" because the work's "minimalistic" simplicity doesn't represent Krasa at his best, which is found in some of his orchestral works, the 1936 Theme and Variations for String Quartet, and the 1943 Passacaglia and Fugue for String Trio, written while captive in Teresienstadt. Musically, "Burundibar" is a charming, simple, melodic, folksong-like suite of brief scenes. Would it have survived without its history? Probably not. Valery Gebert conducts the 13-piece pit orchestra as two extraordinarily mature and professional youngsters, sixth-grader Aaron Simon Gross and third-grader Devynn Pedell sing the lead roles of Pepicek and Aninku, who are trying to get some mild and bread for their sick mother. When they see Brundibar (Euan Morton, on stills), a successful but mean stilt- walking street artist, they ask him for the money, but he not only refuses - he tries to prevent the duo from performing on the street to get the money. The village, led by its children, stands up to Brundibar, and they sing a triumphant chorus of joy. It is at this moment, especially in the superbly cohesive performance by the children that Krasa's "little opera" hits a true musical high note. Production design is by Maurice Sendak, executed by Kris Stone, Tony Taccone is the stage director. The English adaptation is by Tony Kushner. To get an idea of what it might have been like to work with the often Brundibar-like Sendak, see Mirra Bank's memorable documentary, "The Last Dance". It is about Sendak's tempestuous collaboration with Pilobolus to produce "A Selection", a dance piece built on "Brundibar". The same production team is responsible for the other work on the Berkeley Rep's double-bill, Bohuslav Martinu's "Comedy on the Bridge". Its story is even simpler than Krasa's, if that's possible: a group of people getting stuck on a bridge between two warring countries. The music is similarly atypical: it has little to do with the symphonic magnificence of Martinu's large-scale works; it's more like a mini-operetta, in scale and nature. "Bridge" features mostly singers (the Rep's Geoff Hoyle has non-singing roles in both works), including Anjali Bhimani (the Sparrow in "Brundibar"), Martin Vidnovic, Matt Farnsworth. Angelina Reaux (also the outstanding Cat in the other work), and others. Morton gets off his stilts and star billing to play one of the two border guards. Janos Gereben www.sfcv.org [log in to unmask]