One of the nine opera performances Staatstheater Kassel (Hesse) produced this year was Janáček’s Jenůfa. The sold-out premiere which took place on 10 February was preceded a few days earlier by a public talk introducing not only the most famous of Moravian composers and his music but also the background of the Kassel production. The opera was directed … Read more
On 15 January, the renowned Quatuor Diotima presented a new piece by Miroslav Srnka. The concert was a part of Biennale de Quatuors à cordes, a festival of string quartets held by the Philharmonie de Paris. Future Family analyses the traditional distribution of musical roles between the players as well as other conventions typical for a string quartet and explores … Read more
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
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
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
Less than two weeks after the Brundibár premiere in Staatstheater Kassel, a new production of this children opera by Hans Krása was put on on another German opera scene, namely the one of Theater Trier in Rhineland-Palatinate. The piece, performed more than 55 times with the deported children in the Theresienstadt ghetto where the author eventually died, was … Read more
Staatstheater Kassel presented a new production of Hans Krása’s famous Brundibár. The 1938 opera, once sung by children of the Theresienstadt ghetto, was rehearsed by a children choir Cantamus where the soloists were recruited from, too. They were accompanied by the TJO, Theater-Jugendorchester, which is an ensemble formed by talented instrumentalists aged 12-20. The show is a solo debut by … Read more
