Brno is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 400,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic after the capital, Prague, and one of the 100 largest cities of the European Union. The Brno metropolitan area has approximately 730,000 inhabitants.
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, music theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic music, including Eastern European folk music, to create an original, modern musical style.
From the House of the Dead is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček. The libretto was translated and adapted by the composer from the 1862 novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was the composer's last opera, premiered on 12 April 1930 at the National Theatre Brno, two years after his death. The United States premiere of the work took place at Lincoln Center in 1989 when the New York City Opera mounted a production led by conductor Christopher Keene with a cast starring Harlan Foss as Alexandr Petrovič Gorjančikov, John Absalom as Filka Morozov, Jon Garrison as Skuratov, and John Lankston as Šapkin.
Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, is a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev based on William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. First composed in 1935, it was substantially revised for its Soviet premiere in early 1940. Prokofiev made from the ballet three orchestral suites and a suite for solo piano.
Destiny is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer and Fedora Bartošová. Janáček began the work in 1903 and completed it in 1907. The inspiration for the opera came from a visit by Janáček in the summer of 1903, after the death of his daughter Olga, to the spa at Luhačovice. There, Janáček met Kamila Urválková, who had been the subject of an opera by Ludvík Čelanský, Kamila, where she felt that Čelanský had falsely depicted her personality. After learning that Janáček was a composer, Urválková persuaded Janáček to write another opera to counteract Čelanský's portrait of her.
The Excursions of Mr. Brouček to the Moon and to the 15th Century is the complete title of Leoš Janáček’s fifth opera, based on two Svatopluk Čech novels, Pravý výlet pana Broučka do Měsíce (1888) and Nový epochální výlet pana Broučka, tentokráte do XV. století (1889). The librettists for Part 1 were František Gellner, Viktor Dyk, František Sarafínský Procházka and others, while Part 2 was written by F. S. Procházka.
Šárka is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by Julius Zeyer, based on Bohemian legends of Šárka in Dalimil's Chronicle. Written in 1887, the opera lay unproduced for many years and was first performed at the Divadlo na Hradbách in Brno on 11 November 1925 in honour of Janáček's 71st birthday.
Fellner & Helmer was an architecture studio founded in 1873 by Austrian architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer. They designed over 200 buildings across Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century, which helped bind the Austro-Hungarian Empire together and cement Vienna as its cultural center. While most of the work stood in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, others can be found from Switzerland to present-day Ukraine. Frequent collaborators for integrated exterior and interior art work include Gustav Klimt, Hans Makart, Theodor Friedl, and other significant artists.
The National Theatre Brno is an opera, ballet and drama company in the Czech Republic, that nation's second busiest. It was established in 1884 on the model of the National Theatre company in Prague. Today it runs the biennial Janáček Festival, in November, and has three venues:
Alexandr Vladimír Hrska was a Czech painter, graphic designer, and scenographer.
František Jílek was a Czech conductor, known especially for his interpretation of Leoš Janáček's works.
Josef Kajetán Tyl Theatre is a main theatre in Plzeň, Czech Republic. The theatre was built between 1899 and 1902 in the Neo-Renaissance style with some Art Nouveau elements to the design of Antonin Balsanek. Every year the theatre performs some 18 premieres of drama, operas, operettas, ballets or musicals. Since September 2014, actors of the theatre also perform at the New Theatre.
Naděžda Kniplová was a Czech operatic soprano who had an active international career from the 1950s through the 1980s. Kniplová possessed a large voice with a sonorous, metallic, dark timbre that was particularly well suited to the dramatic soprano repertoire. While she was most admired in Czech operas and as Wagnerian heroines, she sang a wide repertoire that also encompassed Italian, Russian, and Hungarian language roles. A fine actress, her performances were praised for their intensity and pathos. However, some critics commented on a certain lack of steadiness or purity in her singing. Her voice is preserved on a number of recordings made on the Supraphon and Decca labels.
Leo Marian Vodička is a Czech operatic tenor who has had an active international career since the early 1970s. He has sung on a number of complete opera recordings and appears in several filmed opera performances.
Janáček Theatre is an opera house in the city of Brno, Czech Republic. It is the largest of the three theatres serving the National Theatre Brno ("NdB") opera and ballet company, the others being the Mahen and the Reduta. It was built starting in 1960 after decades of delay and finally opened in October 1965, since when it has premiered some twenty operas and ballets. A major renovation was completed in 2018. The building's façade is north-facing, away from the city center and towards the nearby house of its namesake composer, who is grandly memorialized on the adjacent landscaped green.
Elegy on the Death of Daughter Olga, JW 4/30 is a cantata for tenor solo, mixed choir and pianoforte, written by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček in 1903. It was written to commemorate the death of composer's daughter, Olga Janáčková. Janáček composed the piece to the text of the Russian teacher Marfa Nikolayevna Veveritsa.
Brno City Theatre is a repertoire theatre in Brno, Czech Republic, that focuses on dramatic and music production, mainly musical theatre. The building of the theatre is located on Lidická street in town square Brno-center. It has two acting areas – dramatical scene and musical theatre scene. As of 2011, the manager and director of the theatre is Stanislav Moša, art manager of the musical ensemble is Petr Gazdík and operetta manager is Igor Ondříček.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Brno, Moravia, Czech Republic.
Rocc is a Slovenian-born opera and music theatre stage director, scenic designer, dramaturge, performance artist, opera manager and pedagogue. His mononymous pseudonym is a tribute to Marie Mrázková, Rocc's professor of stage acting and his life mentor.
Zora Šemberová was a Czech dancer, educator and choreographer. She was the first person to dance the role of Juliet in Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. She is considered one of the most important interpreters in Czech dance.
