After forty years, Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka returned onto the stage of Oper Leipzig, Germany. The new production by Dutch director and scenographer Michiel Dijkema was premiered on 3 December. Focusing on the fairy-tale archetypes of the tragic story, Dijkema crated a mysterious, eerie scenery on the stage, including the lake and moon on a night sky. Most of the … Read more
Miroslav Srnka, the most successful Czech composer today, was the main star of DIALOGE 2017, contemporary music festival held by the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation. Forming the dramaturgical basis of the festival, his music was being performed several times over the 4 days – as the festival’s name suggests – in dialogues with other contemporary, classical, electronic or film … Read more
Less than three years since Jenůfa, Theater Aachen in Aachen, Germany, presented another of Leoš Janáček’s operas – Katya Kabanova. The premiere took place on November 12, led by the theatre’s current music director Justus Thorau. The production was created by the Czech-born director Tibor Torell who presents the story as chain of visions of the heroine, who thus … Read more
On November 11, Theater Bremen, Germany, presented a new production of Dvořák’s Rusalka. Directed by Anna-Sophie Mahler, it became already the fourth opera featuring a strong female lead she staged in Bremen, following Carmen, Maria Stuarda and, five years ago, Janáček’s Makropulos Affair. Mahler set the plot into the rooms reminiscent of the socialist Czechoslovakia of the 70s and instead of on the … Read more
Premiered this spring at the National Theatre in Prague, Jiří Kadeřábek’s opera No Man moved over to Bremen, Germany, native town of the production’s directress Katharina Schmitt. Here, it was performed twice, on November 7 and 8 as a special part of the festival of contemporary German literature Festival für grenzüberschreitende Literatur. No Man tells the tragic life story of … Read more
On October 14, Aalto-Musiktheater opera in Essen, Germany, premiered a new production of Bedřich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride in which numerous Czech artists were involved. Apart from conductor Tomáš Netopil, who currently works as the general music director of the theatre, tenor Richard Samek starring as Jeník, scenographer Martin Chocholoušek and costume designer Simona Rybáková it was also … Read more
In co-production with Opéra de Montréal, Pacific Opera Victoria in the capital of British Columbia, Canada, presented a new production of Janáček’s Jenůfa. It was directed by the internationally acclaimed film director of psychological dramas Atom Egoyan, famed, among others, for Academy Award-nominated The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica (awarded a Golden Palm of Cannes) or the erotic thriller Chloe. Egoyan set the story … Read more
As the last production of the 2017 season, the New Zealand Opera presented Leoš Janáček’s Katya Kabanova. It was in a highly acclaimed production by Australian director Patrick Nolan premiered this February in Seattle (for more information see: https://blog.musica.cz/en/articles/detail/811 ). Founded in 2000, the New Zealand Opera produces three shows each year which are then played in multiple places. Katya Kabanova … Read more
Next commission for the internationally acclaimed Ondřej Adámek came from BCMG, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. They invited him to join their Canal Serenade on Narrow Boats project, a celebration of Birmingham canals and their busy trade history. On September 10 then, what was being exchanged on those boats were not goods but musical ideas… Three composers … Read more
Theater Magdeburg in the capital city of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, put on Dvořák’s Rusalka as the first premiere of this year’s season. The production’s author is an experienced British opera director Stephen Lawless, who has collaborated with MET, Berlin State Opera or Royal Opera House Covent Garden, among others. His Rusalka is not a fairy tale, but a harsh “coming … Read more
