National Theatre Brno opened this year’s season by releasing Rules for Good Manners in the Modern World, an original Czech opera by composer Michal Nejtek and librettist Jiří Adámek, who is also the director. The piece is based on Jean-Luc Lagarce’s (1957-1995) drama for a solo actress, which introduces the spectators to the etiquette rules, as established in the … 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
Held on September 4 in the Domovina hall in Holešovice, Prague, the first autumn concert by BERG orchestra was named “Surya Namaskar”, which means Sun Salutation. That was because the evening’s dominant theme was yoga, specifically as presented by composer and multi-instrumentalist Tomáš Reindl (*1971) in his premiere piece Yoga for Guru, Orchestra and Yogis. Commissioned by the … Read more
A part of the 15th year of music and environment Baltic Sea Festival, which was held during the last week of August in Stockholm, was a world premiere of a new piece for choir by composer Martin Smolka. The Name Emmanuel was written on the festival’s commission and was performed on August 27 at the Berwaldhallen concert hall by the … Read more
One of the most eagerly anticipated events of this year’s Ostrava Days was undoubtedly the first Czech performance of Miroslav Srnka’s chamber opera Make No Noise. Written for five voices, thirteen instruments and electronics, the work was commissioned by the Bavarian State Opera and last time performed in August 2016 at the Austrian festival Bregenzer Festspiele. The libretto by … Read more
The fifth day of the Ostrava Days presented a concert of the festival’s residential orchestra Ostravská banda held at the Triple Hall Karolina. Led by four different conductors – Petr Kotík, Joseph Trafton, Bruno Ferrandis and Carl Bettendorf – the ensemble played a program consisting of nine compositions, none of which was more than 15 years old. One of them … Read more
As would be expected, the 10 days and 22 concerts of the 9th year of the contemporary music biennale Ostrava days included several Czech premieres. From those by Czech authors they were first of all the chamber Nothing is Free by Petr Cígler, September by Petr Bakla and The Long Sentence II by Michal Rataj. All of them were performed during … Read more
The ongoing Bard SummerScape festival, held for the 15th time at the Bard College campus some 180 km north of New York, focuses this time primarily on the work of Fréderic Chopin. That is why the choice of the opera to be produced this year fell on a Poland-themed work, the seldom performed Dimitrij by Antonín Dvořák. The author of the … Read more
At the fifth of eight concerts of Podkrkonošské hudební léto festival, world premiere was given to Mosaics, a piece for violin, clarinet and piano by composer Kateřina Horká (*1993). A young student of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague wrote it in autumn 2016, encouraged by the festival’s directress, violinist Ludmila Pavlová. The 15-minute-long piece in 3 movements was … Read more
