Sendak’s Brundibar is both a picture book and an opera based on a 1938 children’s opera. Playwright Tony Kushner adapted the libretto and Sendak creatd the illustrations for the book and designed the sets and costumes for the opera. A political allegory, Brundibar became a symbol of resistance for the inmates of the concentration camp in Terezin, where the opera was originally performed by young Jewish prisoners. Maurice Sendak (American, b. 1928) Final illustration for "His hurdy-gurdy phumphed and wheezed . . . ," dated October 1, 2002 From Brundibar (2003) From the Maurice Sendak Collection at the Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia