Singer

The Czech Society has declared 2024 the Year of Czech Music, which marks a number of important anniversaries of our leading composers and performers, in particular the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bedřich Smetana and the 120th anniversary of the death of Antonín Dvořák.

This gala concert is a celebration not only of the Year of Czech Music and the aforementioned Antonín Dvořák, but especially of his phenomenal work, Svatební košile (The Spectre’s Bride), which this year celebrates 140 years since it was written.

140th anniversary of Antonín Dvořák's The Spectre's Bride

Smetana Hall Municipal House

Smetana and the librettist Karel Sabina masterfully mocked all those who expected the “national opera” to be an idyllic picture of the Czech countryside, with its inhabitants being virtuous and governed by high morals. The Bartered Bride is thus far more humorous than “national”. Nonetheless, its humour is precisely of the type Czechs so love, and hence Smetana’s opera, abounding in irony, scathing, occasionally even cynical, wit, as well as tenderness and simple joie de vivre, has ultimately become “national” in the best sense of the word ...

The Bartered Bride

National Theatre

And if we were to name the places at which Mozart in person premiered an opera of his and which still function as theatres, the one and only candidate in the world would be the Estates Theatre in Prague. The National Theatre Opera has proudly cherished this unique tradition for decades.

Don Giovanni

The Estates Theatre

The opera Nabucco, depicting the dramatic story of the subjugation of the Israelites by the King of Babylon, ranks among Guiseppe Verdi’s most celebrated works. Phenomenal chorus scenes, extremely impassioned virtuoso arias, as well as the perennially topical themes of expansive war, lust for power, betrayal, life and death, are the reasons why it has always been a staple of opera houses’ repertoire.

Nabucco

State Opera

Antonín Dvořák’s two most successful operas, The Devil and Kate, and Rusalka, are based on fairy-tale motifs. Blending folk and humorous with lyrical and fantasy elements is one of the typical (and still very popular) traits of Czech drama. Dvořák created a masterly patchwork of contrasting scenes – folksy, breezy, fiendishly fervent and courtly noble.

The Devil and Kate

National Theatre Prague

What awaits Hansel and Gretel after they get lost in the forest? The German composer Engelbert Humperdinck transformed the classic Grimm brothers’ fairy tale into an opera with a libretto by his sister Adelheid Wette. Humperdinck’s music is marked by a masterful portrayal of scenes and settings, overflowing with beautiful melodies. Under his pen, fairy-tale characters come to life: woodland fairies, the wicked witch, and children made of gingerbread. Since its premiere in 1893, this opera has enchanted generations of audiences and rightfully belongs among the ten most popular works of the world repertoire. After a long 36 years, it now returns to Plzeň. Don’t worry—everything turns out well in the end!

Hansel and Gretel

Theater of JK Tyl New Stage

The powerful story of The Dogheads, one of Alois Jirásek’s most celebrated works, seems destined for the operatic stage. In 1897, the experienced composer and conductor Karel Kovařovic took on the challenge and created an opera that triumphed in the competition for a new Czech opera, surpassing Fibich and Foerster. Soon after, The Dogheads spread to opera houses across the Czech lands and won the hearts of a wide audience.

The Dogheads

The speculations about whether Libuše is Bedřich Smetana’s most mature work within the context of his opera oeuvre, or even within the context of Czech opera in general, whether and how it can stand its ground as against the airiness of The Bartered Bride, the lyricism and absorptive power of Dvořák’s Rusalka, or the emotion and drama of Leoš Janáček’s operas, do not result in definitive conclusions – it will always depend on the angle from which Libuše and any other renowned Czech opera is viewed.

Libuše

Dvořák – Stabat Mater

Municipal House

Bedřich Smetana’s last completed opera, The Devil’s Wall, the fruit of collaboration with Eliška Krásnohorská, who penned the librettos for his previous operas The Kiss and The Secret, bears both its originally intended comic nature and, more significantly, a final lyrical tone. The composer evidently identified with the character of the ageing nobleman Vok, projecting his own feelings, perhaps ever more so than before. This remarkable work can thus be interpreted as, among other things, a reflection on Smetana's life, one fraught with emotional upheavals.

The Devil’s Wall

Today Václav Trojan (1907–1983) is known primarily as a composer of outstanding scores for a number of 20th-century Czech films. The most noteworthy are the soundtracks to Jiří Trnka’s world-renowned animated movies Bayaya, Old Czech Legends, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Good Soldier Schweik; Bořivoj Zeman’s fairy tale Once Upon a Time There Was a King ..., featuring Jan Werich in the lead role; and Otakar Vávra’s August Sunday. Moreover, Trojan created the ballets Prince Bayaya and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which were performed to acclaim at the National Theatre in Prague, and the stage poem Golden Gate, to folk motives. He wrote one opera, Kolotoč (Carousel), for children young and old, as the secondary title indicates. The owner of a merry-go-round invites children to climb aboard: “If you want to see Indians, a kangaroo and gorillas, take a seat on the carousel!” And indeed: in the scenes that follow children are taken on dreamy trips to an African rainforest, the Australian Outback, an Indian jungle, as well as to the world of American film. Characterised by bounteous instrumentation and exquisite melody, Trojan’s music co-creates a colourful fantasy story.

Unknown

Richard Samek

Events

Upcoming events

Aug 27, 2026 - Jun 27, 2027

The Bartered Bride · Národní divadlo

Aug 28 - Nov 27, 2026

Don Giovanni · Národní divadlo

Aug 30 - Dec 15, 2026

Nabucco · Národní divadlo

Sep 3, 2026 - Mar 21, 2027

The Devil and Kate · Národní divadlo

Sep 5, 2026

Hansel and Gretel · J.K. Tyl Theatre

Past events

Oct 30, 2024

140th anniversary of Antonín Dvořák's The Spectre's Bride · Prague Philharmonia

Future and recently performed repertoire

Jeník in The Bartered Bride by Smetana

Národní divadlo

Ježibaba in Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck

J.K. Tyl Theatre

Singer in Stabat Mater by Dvořák

Prague Symphony Orchestra

Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni by Mozart

Národní divadlo

Ismaele in Nabucco by Verdi

Národní divadlo

Singer in The Spectre's Bride by Dvořák

Prague Philharmonia

Jan Sladký Kozina in The Dogheads by Kovařovic

J.K. Tyl Theatre

Shepherd Jirka in The Devil and Kate by Dvořák

Národní divadlo

Šťáhlav in Libuše by Smetana

Národní divadlo

Jarek in The Devil's Wall by Smetana

Národní divadlo

Mr. Josef in Carousel by Trojan

Národní divadlo

About

Richard Samek hasn't added a bio