Wranitzky Kapelle is led by Czech conductor Marek Štilec. It is composed of top musicians with an interest in an informed interpretation of Viennese classicism. Štilec also collaborates with the boys' choir Boni Pueri, and so the idea of performing Mozart's Requiem in a boys' and men's ensemble, i.e. "in the original version", was born.

Mozart – Requiem

Church of Saints Simon and Jude

Even after more than 100 years, Janáček’s Diary of One Who Disappeared is still a work that is shrouded in mystery. What is certain, however, is that the music is beautiful and to prove this, the Czech Chamber Music Society has invited tenor Jaroslav Březina and alto Jana Hrochová to tell this tale of forbidden love.

EPSG:4326

Czech Chamber Music Society • Jana Hrochová & Jaroslav Březina

Rudolfinum

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

Carmen is actually one of the first verismo operas that preceded the “manifesto” of the Italian artistic movement. Its style, and the death of the title heroine, which were at variance with the established opéra comique conventions, seem to have been the reason why the work did not give rise to much public enthusiasm at and in the wake of the world premiere in Paris in 1875. Yet Carmen soon triumphed in other European cities.

Carmen

National Theatre Prague

Composed by one of the major figures of 20th-century musical theatre – the creator of 16 musicals and hundreds of songs, who launched his career writing the lyrics for Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story – it is an iconic work of its genre. SWEENEY TODD: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a riveting synthesis of dark humour, horror and melodrama, imbued with brilliant musical irony.

SWEENEY TODD: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

State Opera

The Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich set Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk to a libretto he wrote together with Alexander Preis after the eponymous novella by Nikolai Leskov. He himself referred to the opera as a satirical tragedy. The main character, Katerina, is a murderess haunted by qualms of conscience. Yet, with a touch of bitter humour, Shostakovich also focuses on the moral decay of the inhabitants of a Russian village, revealing the omnipresent torpidity and recklessness. Life without hope and love is the very reason for the heroine’s downfall.

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

Traditional concerts of Christmas music at the National Theatre.

Advent concerts

Almost three centuries have passed since the English painter, satirist and “forefather of the cartoon” William Hogarth created a series of eight paintings (and later on engravings), tellingly titled A Rake’s Progress – the path, development, simply the life of a libertine. They capture the story of a young man who inherits an immense fortune and proceeds to squander it on luxurious living, gambling and prostitutes. It is not a trait exclusive to the 18th century that people indulging in such a lifestyle end up at a psychiatric hospital, called during Hogarth’s time (and until recently) an “asylum”.

The Rake’s Progress

The Estates Theatre

Although many in his homeland still consider Leoš Janáček a difficult modernist, all over the world he has long been esteemed as a truly singular classical genius. His opera Katya Kabanova, based on A. N. Ostrovsky’s drama The Storm, deeply impresses every perceptive viewer due to its immense emotionality, attesting to Janáček’s extraordinary empathy. The title heroine, with her dreamy, amorous and heart-wrenching states of mind, is placed in stark contrast with the savage behaviour of those around her. The desperate Katya ultimately finds the solution to her inner conflict between desire and social obligation in the water of the river Volga. The National Theatre in Prague first performed Janáček’s opera a year after its world premiere in Brno in November 1921.

Katya Kabanova

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

The German composer Richard Strauss based Salome, one of his most celebrated operas, on Oscar Wilde’s eponymous tragedy. The first to portray the title role in the play was the famed French actress Sarah Bernhardt (her company gave four performances at the National Theatre in Prague), whose art also contributed to the popularity of other dramas  (Tosca and Madame Sans-Gêne), subsequently adapted as operas.

Jaroslav Březina

Events

Upcoming events

Aug 27, 2026 - Jun 27, 2027

The Bartered Bride · Národní divadlo

Sep 4, 2026 - May 5, 2027

Carmen · Národní divadlo

Sep 24, 2026 - Jun 27, 2027

SWEENEY TODD: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street · Národní divadlo

4 - 23 Oct, 2026

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk · Národní divadlo

Nov 29 - Dec 20, 2026

Advent concerts · Národní divadlo

Past events

4 - 5 May, 2026

Mozart – Requiem · Prague Symphony Orchestra

Nov 26, 2024

Czech Chamber Music Society • Jana Hrochová & Jaroslav Březina · Czech Philharmonic

Future and recently performed repertoire

Principal in The Bartered Bride by Smetana

Národní divadlo

Singer in Requiem by Mozart

Prague Symphony Orchestra

Seedy lout in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Shostakovich

Národní divadlo

Herodes in Salome by Strauss

Národní divadlo

Dancaïro in Carmen by Bizet

Národní divadlo

Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd by Sondheim

Národní divadlo

Tichon Ivanyč Kabanov in Káťa Kabanová by Janáček

Národní divadlo

Sellem in The Rake’s Progress by Stravinsky

Národní divadlo

Singer in The Diary of One Who Disappeared by Janáček

Czech Philharmonic

Michálek in The Devil's Wall by Smetana

Národní divadlo

About

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