Festival Diary: Janacek Brno Festival 2020: Day 4

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Yesterday evening I had just finished writing Day 3 of the Festival Diary when I bumped into the composer Krystof Maratka, whom I had earlier seen performing his piece “Prophecy” for piano and folk instruments, which consisted of bone flutes, whistles, stones and other weird and wonderful instruments. We had an interesting chat in which he explained his fascination with {…}

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Festival Diary: Janacek Brno Festival 2020: Day 3

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This morning I headed off to Brno’s Romany Museum, the only one dedicated to the Roma people, their history, and their culture in Europe. Situated in a fairly poor area of the city in which the Roma people had been forcibly settled I was greeted by a most enthusiastic and knowledgable guide who was happy to give me a personal {…}

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Festival Diary : Janacek Brno Festival 2020: Day 2

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I awoke this morning to some bad news: the production of “The Cunning Little Vixen” scheduled for Friday had been cancelled, the cast having succumbed to the virus. Livia Obručník Vénosová, the soprano cast as the Vixen, had painted a vivid picture of an original production, one which focused on the relationship between the characters and their emotions, and eschewed {…}

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Festival Diary: Janacek Brno Festival 2020: Day 1

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Finally, I have arrived in Brno for the Janacek Festival, 24 hours later than scheduled thanks to a strike by Italian rail staff, which following a series of cancellations and delays left me stranded and seeking a hotel room in Vienna at half-past midnight. Brno is a small picturesque Czech city set close to the Austrian border which each year {…}

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Pavol Breslik & Karita Mattila Highlight Janáček Brno Festival’s 2020 Season

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The Janáček Brno Festival has announced its 2020 edition and confirmed it will begin as planned. For the purposes of this article, we have only focused on the vocal performances. Robert Carsen directs Leoš Janáček’s “Destiny” with a cast that includes Alžběta Poláčková and Szilvia Rálik. Marko Ivanović conducts the opening night opera. “Destiny,” created especially for the Janáček Opera, {…}

Interviews, Stage Spotlight

Q & A: Alžběta Poláčková On The Brno Janacek Festival, ‘Osud’ & Establishing A Successful Career In The Czech Republic

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The Brno Janacek Festival 2020 kicked off with a performance of one of Janacek’s lesser known works, his semi-autobiographical opera “Osud,” with the Czech soprano Alžběta Poláčková in the lead female role of Mila. It would be a fair description to refer to Poláčková as one of the stars of the Czech National Opera, and no surprise that it was {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Brno Janacek Festival 2020 Review: Jenůfa

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(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 {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Brno Janacek Festival 2020 Review: Osud

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(Photo: Marek Olbrzymek) Janacek was not a man to hide his obsession for a woman under a bushel, a fact that became a constant torment to his wife, and they were obsessions, not casual or even consummated affairs. The most famous, of course, was his infatuation with Kamila Stösslová who became the muse for a number of his works, not {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Brno Janacek Festival 2020: The Diary Of One Who Disappeared

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(Photo: Marek Olbrzymek) Janacek’s unorthodox song cycle, “The Diary of One who Disappeared” is a theatrical work, to the extent that it is nowadays often presented as a staged, costumed drama, sometimes with an orchestrated score. It even allows for a variety of interpretations such as Ivo von Hove’s recent production which saw the protagonist cast as a photographer looking {…}

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Festival Diary: Janacek Brno Festival 2020: Day 4

Festival Diary: Janacek Brno Festival 2020: Day 3

Festival Diary : Janacek Brno Festival 2020: Day 2

Festival Diary: Janacek Brno Festival 2020: Day 1

Pavol Breslik & Karita Mattila Highlight Janáček Brno Festival’s 2020 Season

Q & A: Alžběta Poláčková On The Brno Janacek Festival, ‘Osud’ & Establishing A Successful Career In The Czech Republic

Brno Janacek Festival 2020 Review: Jenůfa

Brno Janacek Festival 2020 Review: Osud

Brno Janacek Festival 2020: The Diary Of One Who Disappeared