It has become a custom for the Orthodox music festival Archaion Kallos to annually present new pieces by young Czech composers. Last year it was music by Jan Dušek and Petr Koronthály, this time by Slavomír Hořínka and Jan Ryant Dřízal. The chamber music concert was held on 18 October at the Gallery of the Academy … Read more…
The 71st year of the Bregenzer Festspiele festival (Vorarlberg, Austria) presented a new production of Make No Noise, chamber opera by a renowned Czech composer Miroslav Srnka. Directed by Johannes Erath, it was performed on 17 and 19 August in the modern Werkstattbühne hall. Commissioned by the Bavarian State Opera, Make No Noise was written in 2011 … Read more…
Held regularly from as early as 1969, the Carinthischer Sommer festival in Villach, the metropolis of the federal state of Carinthia, is one of the best known and most popular festivals in Austria. This year among those representing the contemporary music scene was the composer Ondřej Adámek (*1979), one of the festival’s Artists in Residence for 2016. … Read more…
Savonlinna Opera Festival, held between July 8 and August 6 in Savonlinna in the south-east of Finland, presented From the House of the Dead (1928), the very last opera by Leoš Janáček. The premiere took place on July 23 in a curious location of the medieval Olavinlinna castle. The production is a famous one, created by David … Read more…
A new production of Jenůfa by Leoš Janáček is one of the four performances played at Longborough Festival Opera this year. Held between June 9 and August 4, this festival offers what is referred to as “country house opera” experience, which means that the works are performed at remote country houses. In addition to the … Read more…
The Prague-based string quartet fama Q gave a concert in a small Castillian town Quintanar de la Orden at the 23rd Festival de Música La Mancha. Among the works performed were the world premieres of String Quartet No. 2 by Petr Bakla and String Quartet by Jakub Rataj. The other pieces on the programme were written by … Read more…
Five performances of Bohuslav Martinů’s Mirandolina were held at the renowned Teatro La Fenice (Venice) in the first half of July. Directed by Gianmaria Aliverta, this opera from 1953-54 based on a comedy La Locandiera (The Mistress of the Inn) by Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793) was this time set into a present-day wellness centre of a modern hotel. The conductor is … Read more…
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 … Read more…
On June 27 the Prague-based Alfred ve Dvoře Theatre premiered an experimental opera performance The Lists of Infinity by a composer Martin Smolka. This performance directed by Jiří Adámek, who is also the author of the libretto, is in fact a new version of a piece composed 2 years ago on a commission for the New Opera days Ostrava (NODO) … Read more…
The opening evening of the New Opera Days Ostrava (NODO) biennale, which was held between the 27 and 30 June, offered a world premiere of William William, an opera by a composer and the festival’s artistic director Petr Kotík (*1942). The performance took place in the industrial milieu of the Hlubina coal mine. William William is, as the author … Read more…
On June 11 the Theater Mönchengladbach (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) saw a premiere of Janáček’s opera Katja Kabanowa which was last played here 26 years ago. The story of one of the composers’s strongest female characters was put on stage by a team composed almost exclusively of women – from the scenographer and wardrobe supervisor, past the dramaturge to the choirmistress, … Read more…
For the first time in its history, Teatro Real in Madrid staged a new production of Viktor Ullmann’s Emperor of Atlantis (1943). Dramaturgically the premiere was a part of the theatre’s special programme series of works composed mostly by Jewish authors in the 1930s and 1940s. Apart from the main attraction, Arnold Schönberg’s Moses and Aaron, the series also included … Read more…
A song cycle Confessions of a Poet by Juraj Filas received its world premiere at a concert of the composers’ association Harmonia held by the Prague Spring festival on 2 June at the St Agnes’ Convent. It was performed by a renowned Czech baritone Ivan Kusnjer and a pianist Daniel Wiesner. The cycle’s four songs March – To She Who … Read more…
On May 28 one of Bohuslav Martinů’s operatic masterpieces, Juliette (1937-38), was performed, for the first time in the theatre’s history, at the Staatsoper Berlin. The all-star cast includes the Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená in the title role of Juliette and Rolando Villazón as Michel; the conductor is the Staatsoper’s musical director Daniel Barenboim. Much of the attention … Read more…
On May 25 at the Saint Anna’s Church in České Budějovice, the South Czech Philharmonic gave world premiere to a Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by a violinist and composer Pavel Fischer (*1965). The piece is dedicated to Helena Jiříkovská who recently replaced Fischer in the position of the Škampa Quartet’s first violinist which he had been holding for … Read more…
Antonín Dvořák’s rarely played oratorio Saint Ludmila concluded the Dvořák Festival held by the Manchester Hallé Orchestra. In the course of two weeks between May 5 and 21 the orchestra led by Sir Mark Elder commemorated the music by this renowned Czech composer by launching seven concerts of some of his most famous works. Among the … Read more…
Escape Routines by Miroslav Srnka were given their first European performance during the 71st year of the Prague Spring Internatonal Music Festival. Premiered on 26 September 2010 at the Boston Symphony Hall, this piece for clarinet, violin, viola, cello and harp was performed on 21 May at the Prague Conservatory Concert Hall by the members … Read more…
A new composition by Martin Smolka received its premiere at the international contemporary music festival Acht Brücken. Musik für Köln (Eight Bridges. Music for Cologne) whose sixth year was held between April 30 and May 10. The piece for violin and piano called lay, wail, purr, whirr, smooth, whoop, soothe (and this also is vanity) … Read more…
Pivní oratorium (Beer Oratorio) by a composer and conductor Jan Kučera (*1977) received its premiere during the final concert of the 38th year of the Pardubice Music Spring International Festival, which took place on 10 May at the Suk Hall of the House of Music in Pardubice. Commissioned by the festival whose aim is to annually … Read more…
Four orchestral pieces by the composition students of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (Jan Ryant Dřízal, Jan Fila, Daniel Chudovský and Soňa Vetchá) were given premiere by the Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra on a concert on May 2 at the Academy’s Martinů Hall. The concert was opened by a piece called The Tree of Life by Jan … Read more…