25 June 2022, 3:30pm, Smetana House, Litomyšl Smetana’s Litomyšl Jiří Gemrot: The Burying of Light. A cantata for narrator, baritone, mixed choir, string quartet and piano (world premiere) Libretto: Vojtěch Stříteský based on texts and poetry by Miloslav Bureš Jan Šťastný – recitation, Roman Hoza – baritone, Matouš Zukal – piano, Zemlinsky Quartet (František Souček, Petr … Read more
24 June 2022, 8pm, Castle Riding Hall, Litomyšl Smetana’s Litomyšl: Jazz Ride in the Riding Hall Emil Viklický: Reflections on Freedom. A jazz melodrama with a libretto based on texts and ideas of Václav Havel (such as The Power of the Powerless, Audience, On Freedom) and excerpts from a book by American historian Timothy Snyder On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons … Read more
20 and 21 June 2022, 8pm, Castle Courtyard, Litomyšl Smetana’s Litomyšl Jiří Pavlica: And Love Again… A programme commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of poet Jan Skácel (world premiere commissioned by the festival) Kryštof Bartoš – recitation, Jiří Pavlica – voice, Hradišťan, Žerotín Academic Choir (choirmaster Pavel Koňárek), Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK, cond. Stanislav Vavřínek
6 July 2021, 2pm, Church of the Raising of the Holy Cross, Litomyšl Smetana’s Litomyšl Jan Kučera: Judge of All Reconcilliation, God. Meditation on a song from John Amos Comenius’s hymn book from 1659 (world premiere) Czech Horn Chorus, Aleš Bárta – organ
5 July 2020, Piarist Church of the Finding of the Holy Cross, Litomyšl Smetana’s Litomyšl Jiří Gemrot: No Promises. A cycle for mixed choir (world premiere) Martinů Voices, cond. Lukáš Vasilek
23 June 2019, Piarist Church of the Finding of the Holy Cross, Litomyšl Smetana’s Litomyšl Slavomír Hořínka: Ave Maria (world premiere) Prague Philharmonic Children’s Choir, artistic director: Pavel Peřina, cond. Jiří Chvála
15 June 2018, Castle Courtyard, Litomyšl Smetana’s Litomyšl A Bohemian Pilgrim, Cantata for narrator, baritone, children’s choir, mixed choir and orchestra to a libretto by Vojtěch Stříteský and poems by František Hrubín, Jiří Orten, Josef Václav Sládek, Josef Kainar, Karel Hlaváček, Josef Hora and Jaroslav Seifert (world premiere to a commission from the 60th year of the Smetana’s Litomyšl National Festival on … Read more
The 59th year of the Smetana’s Litomyšl music festival (Jun 16 – Jul 6) thought about its youngest spectators, too. It was for them that the festival staged a children opera performance Rusalenka by a well-known singer, pedagogue, and directress of the Prague children’s opera Jiřina Marková-Krystlíková (*1957). Commissioned by the festival, the work is based on Dvořák’s most famous opera. The … Read more
