NODO – New Opera Days Ostrava presented a world premiere of Protracted Sinuous Movement of a Longitudinal Object , an opera by a composer and scientist Petr Cígler which was written directly for the festival. The performance took place on June 29 at the Antonín Dvořák Theatre.
Petr Odo Macháček’s libretto explores the relations between a woman, a man, and a rattlesnake in a common house. Their encounters involve “deep understanding, high levels of tension, and merciless combat with protracted, sinuous movements and extremely sharp, precise assaults”. The opera combines singing with spoken word; the singers are doubled by actors and both singers and actors are doubled again – this way one character is played by four different performers. The female singers included Aneta Bendová and Eva Gieslová, the male ones Vojtěch Semerád and Josef Škarka and the spoken parts were performed by the actors from the Prague-based Kámen theatre Zdeňka Brychtová, Lenka Chadimová, Vladimír Benderski and Jiří Šimek. The music was played by Ostravská banda chamber orchestra led by a conductor and horn player Ondřej Vrabec.
29 June 2016, Antonína Dvořák Theatre, Ostrava
NODO – New Opera Days Ostrava
Petr Cígler: Protracted Sinuous Movement of a Longitudinal Object (2015-16) – world premiere
libretto and director: Petr Odo Macháček
Ostravská banda, conductor: Ondřej Vrabec