About the work
“Der Hase mit den Bernsteinaugen” (The Hare with Amber Eyes) is a musical with music by Thomas Zaufke and book and lyrics by Henry Mason. It is based on the book of the same name in which the British author Edmund de Waal traces the history of his family; the book came out in English in 2010 and in German in 2011. The Landestheater Linz commissioned the musical and gave the world premiere on 6 April 2019 in its Schauspielhaus, directed by Mason himself. Zaufke's score draws on the sounds of the eras the story passes through, from waltz and march to Charleston and 1920s popular songs.
Plot
Edmund de Waal inherits 264 Japanese netsuke, small ivory carvings, and sets out to learn what path they have travelled; as narrator he is himself part of the action on stage. His search leads through some 150 years of the Jewish banking family Ephrussi, from Odessa via Paris to Vienna, where the collection passes to Viktor and Emmy von Ephrussi and their children. Under Nazi rule the family loses its possessions, but the housemaid Anna saves the figures and returns them to the daughter Elisabeth after the war. By way of Elisabeth's brother Iggie, who moves to Japan, the inheritance finally reaches Edmund in London.
Cultural significance
At the 2019 German Musical Theatre Awards the piece won four prizes: best musical, and awards for composition, lyrics and musical arrangement (Markus Syperek). Critics particularly praised how it shapes the source's sprawling family history for the musical stage.