Director Robert Carsen has received the Leoš Janáček Memorial Medal from the Leoš Janáček Foundation. The famed director received the prize from Nadace Leoše Janáčka at the Janáček Brno Festival . Over the years, Carsen has worked at the Janáček Brno Festival and Národní divadlo Brno creating memorable productions of “Káťa Kabanová,” “Osud,” and “Výlety páně Broučkovy.” Carsen is a well-known Canadian {…}
(Photo: Národní divadlo Brno) Fairytales often speak directly to our unconscious, revealing drives and truths that are not always apparent to our conscious selves. It is therefore not surprising that many tales are replicated across countries and cultures, even if the characters and details vary. The Slavic fable of Rusalka, for example, has counterparts with the French Melusine, Germanic Nixie {…}
(Photo: Jakob Jira) Alongside the headline operas, the Janáček Brno Festival stages a number of student and alternative projects. One of the works on offer this year was a piece entitled “The Other City,” performed by Ensemble Opera Diversa, written by Czech composer and librettist, Ondřej Kyas, based on a 1993 novel of the same name by Michal Ajvaz. A {…}
(Photo: Marek Olbrzymek) “Every stage work takes on new meanings with each new interpretation.” So reads the opening line of the program notes by dramaturg Marta Ljubková, writing about Janáček Brno Festival’s production of “Jenůfa.” She was being somewhat disingenuous. What was presented was not a change in emphasis or an exploration of hidden themes; rather, it was a heavy-handed {…}
(Photo: Marek Olbrzymek) Would any opera house be bold enough to present a work about the horrors of life in a gulag in which the guilty and innocent are thrown together to be abused, debased and left to die? Undoubtedly, the answer is yes! What if it were to be presented in a Christian context, in which Christ walks among {…}
(Photo: Festival Janacek Brno) Janacek’s song cycle “The Diary of One Who Disappeared” is a regular inclusion at the Janacek Brno Festival. Yet such have been the variety of performances, they can often appear as very different works. At the 2020 festival, the cycle was presented as a staged work using Janáček’s own staging instructions, with Pavol Breslik in the {…}
(Photo: Janacek Brno Festival) Over the course of her career, Czech soprano Eva Urbanova has done it all. She has performed at the world’s top opera houses, sang with the greatest singers, and worked with the greatest conductors and stage directors. However, as of yet, there is no sign of her slowing down. She has just completed a performance of {…}
(Photo: Festival Janacek Brno) In 1902, Janáček’s daughter, Olga, then only 20-years-old, went on a trip to visit her uncle in St. Petersburg. Being a keen admirer of Russia, she was planning to spend an extended period in the Russian capital to deepen her knowledge of the language and its culture, but events took a devastating turn: she caught typhus {…}
The young Czech baritone Roman Hoza is currently appearing as Gorjančikov in Janacek’s “From the House of the Dead” at the Brno Janacek Festival. Although attached to the Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, for which he performs a variety of roles, he also makes guest appearances with other companies, particularly in his home country, at the Prague National Opera and, {…}
(Credit: Janáček Brno Festival) Janáček Brno Festival has announced its 2022 season. For the purpose of this article we will focus on the vocal works only. A double bill of “From the House of the Dead” and “Glagolitic Mass” spotlights Roman Hoza, Gianluca Zampieri, Tigran Hakobyan, Lukáš Bařák, Jan Šťáva, Kateřina Kněžíková, and Jarmila Balážová. Jakub Hrůša conducts a production {…}
(Photo: Marek Olbrzymek) Superficially “Jenůfa” is a tale of village life, full of folk traditions and colorful costumes, of a close intimate community in which all participate in each other’s daily lives and activities. Sure bad things happen, as they do everywhere, people fall out, they fight and argue and occasionally even murder, but the underlying harmony and all round {…}
