Czech Center New York to Present ‘Czech Prima Donnas’ at the Metropolitan Opera
By Francisco SalazarThe Czech Center New York in collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera and the Czech National Museum in Prague is preparing an exhibition about Czech female opera singers.
The exhibition will showcase singers whose careers brought them onto the Met stage. Some of the singers starred in the Met’s first productions of major Czech operas. Among them are Emmy Destinn who performed in the first Met performance of Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride,” Maria Jeritza who starred in the US premiere of Janáček’s “Jenůfa.”
Other artists that will be included are Maria Müller Jarmila Novotná, Ludmila Dvořáková, Eva Randová, and Gabriela Beňačková, who was the first to perform at the Met in the title roles of both Dvořák’s “Rusalka and Janáček’s “Káťa Kabanová.”
Also in the exhibition are current singers Eva Urbanová and Magdalena Kožená.
The exhibition will present unique costumes worn by Maria Jeritza and Jarmila Novotná, from the Metropolitan Opera Archives. There will also be costumes worn by Emmy Destinn from the collections of the National Museum of the Czech Republic. The costumes will be complemented by a video screening of interviews with current opera singers, archival images from the Czech National Film Archive’s collections, and panels providing explanatory texts and reproductions of period photographs.
The exhibition is set to take place from May 22 through June 23,2024 at the Czech Center Gallery.
Categories
News
