Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
Edmond J. Safra Plaza, 36 Battery Pl.
December 25 – January 1, $25
866-811-4111
mjhnyc.org
www.jodyoberfelder.com
www.knickerbocker-orchestra.org
In 2006, the original orchestrations for Kurt Weill’s 1922 Zaubernacht, his first work for the stage, was found after eighty years, lost when Weill fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and then found in a locked Yale safe. The children’s pantomime for solo soprano and chamber orchestra was last performed in New York in 1925, so it should be a treat to see the family-friendly tale when it is revived March 14, 15, and 18 by Jody Oberfelder Projects and the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. New York-based choreographer Oberfelder, whose 4Chambers and The Brain Piece explored the human heart and brain, respectively, now turns to the world of children as a fairy brings toys to life and characters emerge from fairy tales in what might or might not be a dream. “I’ve devised a fresh fairy tale, told through the lens of a child, about overcoming darkness, developing resilience, and finding one’s place in the world,” Oberfelder said in a statement. The Lower Manhattan-based Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra, now in its tenth anniversary season, returns to the Battery Park City museum after 2012’s “Music for the Tempest Tost: A Tribute to Emma Lazarus,” 2013’s “Banished Genius: Emigre Composers in America,” and 2014’s “Pièces de Résistance: Music Celebrating the Polish Spirit.” The seventy-five-minute Zaubernacht features a nine-piece instrumental ensemble and a troupe of dancers performing such sections as “Lier der Fee,” “The Kitchen Stove Enters,” “The Children Awaken,” and “The Tumbler.”