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Grand opera

This month, the country's best young singers and companies come to Prague

By Frank Kuznik
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 7th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
The cream of the country's operatic talent will be appearing in Verdi's Attila and Macbeth, Martinů's The Miracles of Mary, and Verdi's Rigoletto.
It’s less than two weeks before the opening of the Opera 2007 festival, and the organizers have just received some bad news: The city of Prague is not going to make good on its 600,000 Kč ($28,116) funding commitment. For a modest event with a total budget of only 2 million Kč, that’s a serious blow.
But PR director Radmila Hrdinová seems unruffled as she snaps shut her mobile phone after a conversation with festival director Lenka Šaldová. “We are preparing a letter for Mayor [Pavel] Bém,” she says. “We will find a way.”
Opera 2007

When: March 9–April 3
Where: National Theater, Estates Theater, State Opera, Divadlo Kolowrat
Tickets: 30–590 Kč, available at the venues
For more information, check www.divadlo.cz/jhd

Bém seems more concerned with planning his assault on Mount Everest than the city’s cultural affairs these days, but no matter: Somehow the festival will go on, as it has biannually since 1993. The idea is to bring the best of the Czech Republic’s considerable operatic talent to Prague, and give audiences here a chance to see productions and hear voices they might not otherwise encounter.
“Basically, we want to show Prague audiences that there are some very interesting ensembles in other cities,” Hrdinová says. “People are often surprised by the quality of productions that come from places like Ostrava or Opava.”
The groups, which range from the National Theater in Brno to student ensembles from far-flung places such as Zlín, are allowed to select their contribution to the festival, culled from their 2005–06 season — with final approval from the festival office. “We don’t want 10 Rigolettos,” Hrdinová says. As it happens, Rigoletto is on this year’s schedule, along with another Verdi staple, Macbeth. But so is his seldom-performed Attila, along with lesser-known works by Martinů and composers such as Jaromír Weinberger and Alexander von Zemlinsky.
The festival incorporates two current productions in the Prague repertoire, starting with the National Theater’s Samson et Dalila (March 9). It closes at the State Opera with that theater’s production of Candide (March 24) and the grand finale, a “Galakoncert” (April 3), which this year features performances by five outstanding young vocalists and the traditional presentation of the “Libuška” awards for best productions and performers.
In between, there is something for almost every taste and interest, in a variety of sizes and settings. The smaller groups include Ensemble Damian, a student group assembled by Czech composer Tomáš Hanzlík to perform his work, which is doing two pieces at Divadlo Kolowrat (March 11). One is a premiere that features Hanzlík himself in a small role as an organ grinder.
Other troupes playing the small stage at Divadlo Kolowrat include the Chamber Opera Ensemble Orfeo of Brno, which will be performing Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne (March 10), and the Ensemble Opera Diversa from the music academy in Zlín, which will be doing short excerpts from five original works (March 17). The excerpts include an animated student film with animal characters. “It will be a bit crazy,” Hrdinová notes.
The Moravian Theatre from Olomouc brings Attila to the Estates Theater (March 10), where the person to watch is Petr Šumník, who is considered one of the best young conductors in the country. A few days later the Rigoletto production plays at the Estates (March 13), featuring the North Bohemian Theatre of Opera and Ballet from Ústí nad Labem and, in the title role, baritone Nikolai Nekrasov, who won a singing award at the Opera 2005 festival. Another baritone worth hearing, Anatolij Orel, sings the title role in Macbeth at the Estates (March 14) with the F. X. Šalda Theatre from Liberec.
Fans of Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů get a double treat this year. The Miracles of Mary, a series of Bible vignettes set to music, will be performed at the National Theater by the J. K. Tyl Theatre from Plzeň (March 11), and the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre of Ostrava is bringing its version of Martinů’s Greek Passion to the National Theater (March 17). The latter company is noted for its roster of strong singers, which this year includes Italian tenor Luciano Mastro.
One of the most interesting titles in this year’s festival is Švanda dudák (Švanda the Bagpiper), an opera by Czech composer Jaromír Weinberger that was a huge hit after it debuted in 1927, translated into 17 languages and performed around the world. Except for a famous polka, it’s fallen into total obscurity since. This production, by the Silesian Theatre Opava, plays at the Estates (March 16).
Noted Austrian composer and conductor Alexander Zemlinsky gets a homecoming of sorts when his Der Kreidekreis (The Chalk Circle) plays at the State Opera (March 18). Zemlinsky was chief conductor at what was then the New German Theater for many years, and for this 1933 opera he adapted an ancient Chinese story about a Solomon-like settlement over a disputed baby, the same source material later used by Bertolt Brecht for his Caucasian Chalk Circle. This production comes from the South Bohemian Theatre of České Budějovice with a young conductor/director team and an up-and-coming soprano, Kateřina Hájovská.
There are new supplementary programs this year, and the ticket prices are — well, suffice it to say that you won’t see this much opera for this little money anywhere else on the planet. It may not be world-caliber talent — not yet, anyway — but it should be a very entertaining month.

Frank Kuznik can be reached at fkuznik@praguepost.com


Other articles in Tempo (7/03/2007):

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