Premiered on 2nd February, the historically second production of Dvořák’s Rusalka at the Metropolitan Opera in New York meets with very mixed reactions. The critics cannot seem to agree in their opinion both on Mary Zimmerman’s direction and the singers’ performance. Who gets mostly enthusiastic reactions is the American mezzosoprano Jamie Barton in the role of Ježibaba; some, … Read more…
Saarländisches Staatstheater in Saarbrücken, the capital of the state of Saarland, Germany, opened its 2017 opera season with a premiere of Janáček’s Katja Kabanowa. Written in 1921 and based on A. N. Ostrovsky’s play The Storm, the opera got performed here for the first time in history. The premiere took place on January 14. The director Ben Baur set … Read more…
Thirty years since the last performance, Viktor Ullmann’s Emperor of Atlantis returned onto the stage of the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. The new production of this one-act opera, composed in 1943 in the Theresienstadt ghetto, was premiered on 11 January on the Kammeroper scene. The director is Rainer Vierlinger, the theatre’s long-standing collaborator for whom … Read more…
On 17th December, Theater Erfurt (Thuringia, Germany) presented a new production of Bedřich Smetana’s Bartered Bride. It was conducted by the theatre’s second kapellmeister, Greek conductor Zoi Tsokanou. Rather than to experiment, director Markus Weckesser chose to set the story, very traditionally, into a Bohemian village, the atmosphere of which is enhanced by the realist scenography and costumes. The central pair … Read more…
Piano Concerto by Miroslav Srnka got selected as one of the pieces presented at Prague Radio Symphony orchestra’s last pre-Christmas concert which was held on December 19 in Rudolfinum. As the internationally best-known Czech contemporary composer currently, Srnka was a perfect choice for the evening which bore the title “Czech Traces In The World” and whose program included … Read more…
On 13th December, St. Clement’s Church in Prague witnessed the final concert of the Music in Contexts concert cycle. Named 2016 AD, the evening aimed not only to commemorate the approaching Christmas, but also to enrich the Christmas’ repertory with new pieces by contemporary authors. These were performed by the Prague Modern orchestra conducted by Jan Rybář. … Read more…
On December 7 and 8, Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra presented a contemporary oratorio I, Job!, by director Dodo Gombár and composer David Rotter. The spoken title role of a severely tested man, as described in the Old Testament’s Book of Job, was played by the popular actor Bolek Polívka. The part of Job’s younger alter ego was sung by … Read more…
Composer Michal Rataj was one of the guests of Polish contemporary electroacoustic music festival Nowa Muzyka w Starym Ratuszu. Three of his works were presented at a concert on 8th December at the Old Town Hall in Gdańsk. The first piece on the program was Winter Shadowy. This composition, which made it to the finals of the … Read more…
Held on 6th December at the Saint Lawrence Church, Prague, this year’s last concert of the composers’ association Konvergence was focused exclusively on Czech contemporary music. Six pieces on the program involved Michal Rataj’s Running For Breath. This piano solo composition was written already in 2013 but it was not until now that it received its world … Read more…
Three concerts took place during the fourth week of the Days of Contemporary Music festival. All of them were held at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague with fifteen of the twenty pieces presented enjoying their world premiere. The program on November 21 consisted exclusively of chamber music. Pallets and Shading by Jiří Bezděk … Read more…
One of the goals the Contempuls festival has been working towards is to support Czech composers and to give them the opportunity to present themselves in an international context. At this year’s last two concerts, premiere was given to three pieces by Czech authors of the young generation – Jakub Rataj, Jan Ryant Dřízal and Jiří Kadeřábek. … Read more…
Three concerts of Czech 20th and 21st century music took place during the second and third week of the Days of Contemporary Music festival. All of them were held in the halls of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. The festival has since long been focusing on premiering new pieces and the concert on … Read more…
MoEns ensemble: premieres of pieces by Marek Kopelent, Hanuš Bartoň, Michal Nejtek and Kamil Doležal
MoEns ensemble who specializes exclusively in contemporary music played a concert on November 8 at the Gallery of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. This time, they gave world premieres to four compositions by their members or related artists – Marek Kopelent, Hanuš Bartoň, Michal Nejtek and Kamil Doležal. Comprising of Doležal (clarinet), David Danel (violin), … Read more…
Held on 15th November at La Fabrika, Prague, the second evening of the Contempuls festival was opened with a recital by British pianist and new music expert Ian Pace. For the first bit, he chose two pieces by Luboš Mrkvička (*1978). Mrkvička typically marks his pieces by letters only and always sees them as arbitrarily combinable … Read more…
The 8th year of the Prague contemporary music festival Contempuls started on Friday 11th November with an orchestral concert in La Fabrika, Holešovice. Besides Jo Kondo’s To the Headland, Bent Sørensen’s Piano Concerto No. 2 „La Mattina“ (with Jonathan Powell as a soloist in place of indisposed Jan Bartoš) and Symphony: Daar kom die Alibama by Kevin Volans, … Read more…
The 27th year of the Days of Contemporary Music festival started on 2nd November in Prague. Organized by the Society of Czech Composers, it will stage nine concerts and present 55 pieces by Czech contemporary composers. The opening concert was held at the Church of Virgin Mary under the Chain in Lesser Town of Prague. … Read more…
Early Spring (Předjaří), audio-visual composition by Martin Klusák (*1987) received its world premiere at the recent concert of the Berg Orchestra which took place on 31st October at the St. Agnes Convent in Prague. It was with this piece that the author successfully finished his studies of composition at the Academy of Performing Arts in … Read more…
Staatsoper Hannover chose to present Bedřich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride as one of their productions for the 2016/2017 season. The premiere took place on 29th October and there are ten more performances to follow. The production was directed by Martin G. Berger, young German director celebrated especially for his radical production of Strauss’ Die Fledermaus (also … Read more…
The last concert of this year’s Exposition of New Music festival was a recital by the Italian pianist Emanuele Torquati. It was held on October 23rd at the Bedední dům in Brno and consisted of six piano pieces by contemporary composers. Czech music was represented by two compositions by Petr Bakla one of which, First Movement and … Read more…
One of the events of this year’s Exposition of New Music festival (Octobre 19 – 23, Brno) was a recital by a saxophone and clarinet player Pavel Zlámal. Zlámal, who specializes in contemporary and experimental music, performed four pieces for saxophone solo from 1956 – 2016. Christian Lauba’s Hard, Simon Steen-Andersen’s De profundis and Gianti Scelsi’s Tre pezzi were followed by … Read more…