A new production of Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen received its premiere at NorrlandsOperan in Umeå in northern Sweden – a town, which was elected as the European Capital of Culture of 2014. A family version from 2008 arranged by the composer Alexander Krampe and librettist Ronny Dietrich was chosen by the opera house; it takes slightly … Read more
Two works for saxophone and piano by Eduard Douša were performed at the second concert of the “Contemporary Czech Composers” concert cycle prepared by the Czech Centre Munich. The event took place on 20 February at the town hall of Allmendingen, a small historical town in Baden-Württemberg. The saxophone player Christian Segmehl and pianist Moritz Eggert … Read more
Semperoper Dresden created a new production of a one-act chamber opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis (The Emperor of Atlantis), which had been composed by Viktor Ullmann between 1944-45 in the concentration camp Theresienstadt, less than 100 km away from Dresden. The premiere took place on 19 February in a less formal environment of the so-called Semper 2, a chamber … Read more
On 19 February a new production of Leoš Janáček’s opera The Makropulos Affair received its premiere at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Its authors are the director David Hermann and the scenographer Christof Hetzer, who had already created the productions of Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern (The Little Match Girl) by Helmut Lachenman and Oresteia by Iannis Xenakis … Read more
On 13th February the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck premiered a new production of Janáček’s The Makropulos Affair. It was also the very first performance of the work on the stage of this Austrian opera house in history. The members of the creative team, who already worked together on the successful production of Eugen d’Albert’s Tiefland (1903) two years ago, … Read more
Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa received its premiere on 7th February at the German opera house Landestheater Altenburg. The production was premiered and given three reprises with a great success last year at the partner theater Bühnen der Stadt Gera. These two artistic houses merged together in 1995 and nowadays exist under the joint name Theater und Philharmonie Thüringen; … Read more
On Sunday 31st January the long-awaited world premiere of the opera South Pole by the Czech composer Miroslav Srnka took place at the Bavarian State Opera. The event, referred to as being one of the peaks of this year’s Munich opera season, also represents a crucial moment in the context of Czech contemporary music’s history, the last Czech … Read more
Pavel Haas Study Day, the first international conference focusing specifically on the life and work of the Czech composer Pavel Haas, was held on 30 January at the Cardiff University. Its purpose was to stimulate critical discussion about Haas’s work, which, owing to rather inauspicious politial development, was until 1990s pushed to the verge of oblivion. … Read more
One of the world’s greatest orchestras, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, selected an all-Czech programme for its concerts on 21, 22 and 23 January. Jiří Bělohlávek, who had been forced to withdraw from the concerts due to medical reasons, was replaced by Seattle Symphony Orchestra Music Director Ludovic Morlot. Smetana’s Moldau opened the show, followed by Fantaisies symphoniques … Read more
A new production of Leoš Janáček’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen received its premiere on 19 January at the Theatro Regio Turin. Eigth Czech singers in total are starring in this co-production between the Opéra National du Rhin and Opéra de Lille by the well-known Canadian opera director Robert Carsen: Lucie Silkenová (Bystrouška), Michaela Kapustová (Zlatohřbítek), … Read more
