The production was created especially for Schiff by the theatre, and initially grew out of his relationship with the puppeteer Philippe Brunner, with whom he first collaborated when Brunner was just a boy, Carnegie Hall says of the performance.
?Philippe Brunner, who is now one of the leading members of the Salzburg Marionette Theater, was still a little boy, a teenager (maybe 12 years old), and he and his school friends had a puppet theater that they put together in Berlin just for fun. This was their hobby. They made the puppets and they would perform The Magic Flute and other Mozart operas. I saw this, and it was absolutely delightful, and I commissioned the children then in Berlin to prepare this Debussy piece for my festival in Austria, which they did,? Carnegie Hall quoted Schiff as saying.
?Many years have passed, and now I thought, ?Philippe is now a professional puppet player. Why don?t we revisit this idea?? So I asked him again to make a production, and another one of the original boys, Heinrich, who is now an opera director did the production. He was the regisseur. They did a wonderful production. We are very excited to bring that New York,? Schiff added.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI) / Carnegie Hall
