News

As a replacement for the initially scheduled performance The Phantom of the Opera, the Swan lake is going to be performed on the March 30.

Preparations are in full swing for an exceptional operatic event: the first night, on March 18, 2010, of a new production of Jules Massenet’s Don Quichotte. It is being staged by Jiří Nekvasil, for whom the occasion marks a comeback to the State Opera after eight years. Alternating in the title role will be Rubén Amoretti, a bass of Italian-Spanish extraction, and Serbian bass Ivan Tomašev; Sancho Panza will be performed by Mexican baritone Noé Colín, alternating with Jakub Kettner; and the two ladies cast as Dulcinée are Galia Ibragimova and Andrea Kalivodová. The staging is conducted by Heiko Mathias Förster of Germany, who made a successful debut at the Prague State Opera with the revived premiere of Verdi’s Otello in May 2009. The coming premiere is dedicated to the memory of an outstanding Czech interpreter of Don Quichotte, the bass Eduard Haken, the centenary of whose birth will be marked this coming March. He created the part in the last previous production of the Massenet opera in Prague, on the stage of the then Smetana Theatre (today’s Prague State Opera), between the years 1965 and 1967. Rehearsal photos: Luděk Novák.

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One hundred and twenty years after its first performance, on January 23, 2010, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Sleeping Beauty will reach the stage of the Prague State Opera, in the premiere of a new production choreographed by Youri Vàmos, subtitled eloquently The Czar’s Last Daughter. The leading role of Anastasia will be created by the company’s guest, Andrea Kramešová (alternating with State Opera soloist Rebecca King). Andrea Kramešová, who formerly worked with the National Theatre in Prague, Tulsa Ballet in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, is currently engaged with the Swedish Royal Ballet. Commenting on her new role in Prague, she said:

“The Sleeping Beauty has been with me ever since my school days, when I did it as my degree performance. I do like Petipa’s classic version, but I’ve found Youri Vàmos’ original adaptation even closer to my heart. I am fascinated by the story of the royal Romanov family, as well as by the choreographer’s approach to his staging. In terms of dancing technique, the character of Anastasia is on a par with, say, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, but what I believe is an even tougher nut to crack there is one’s having to convey some truly complex emotions in such a manner as to bring across to the audience the production’s message on all its planes of meaning. To me, this is a major challenge, and one I’m ever so keen to take up.”

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Preparations for the first night of the ballet, The Sleeping Beauty – the Czar’s Last Daughter, have made another important step forward. Rehearsals progressing under the supervision of the choreographer Youri Vámos and his assistants, Joyce Cuoco and Alexey Afanassiev (who will also dance the principal male part), have now been moved from ballet studios to the stage. The production poses great demands both on the artists cast for the many solo roles, and on the work of the corps de ballet. The Prague State Opera orchestra is conducted by Pavel Šnajdr. The premiere takes place on January 23, 2010.

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Preparations are already progressing at full speed for an exceptional ballet event: the first night of Youri Vamos’ staging of The Sleeping Beauty – The Czar’s Last Daughter. This highly individual adaptation of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s famous fairy-tale ballet will be first performed on the stage of the Prague State Opera in a gala opening, on January 23, 2010. As shown in the first series of photos related to the production, the demanding process of rehearsals, in the presence of the choreographer and his assistants, has in these days fully absorbed the company’s entire ballet ensemble.

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The Prague State Opera ensemble recently returned to its home turf from an exceptionally successful Japanese tour. This autumn marked already the ninth visit paid by the State Opera to Japan, this time out bringing a new production of Verdi’s Aida, staged by Massimo Gasparón. In the course of the four-week tour, from October 19 through November 15, 2009, the PSO visitors made eighteen appearances in fifteen cities (Tokyo, Fuchu, Omiya, Yokosuka, Musashino, Toyama, Ina, Sasebo, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe, Mito, Obihiro, Sapporo, and Nerima). All of the tour venues, including halls seating 2 700, were hopelessly sold out, including Tokyo’s famed Bunka Kaikan, where the Prague State Opera has appeared four times during this year alone.

The performances were conducted by Giorgio Croci, plus a special guest of the organizing agency, Konzerthaus Japan, the acclaimed Japanese woman conductor, Tomomi Nishimoto. Alternating in the title role were Anda-Louise Bogza and Jitka Svobodová, the rest of the cast included Efe Kişlali and Gianluca Zampieri (Radames); Galia Ibragimova, Daniela Diakova and Jolana Forgašová (Amneris); Miguelangelo Cavalcanti and Jakub Kettner (Amonasro); Oleg Korotkov and Miloš Horák (Ramphis); Lukáš Hynek-Krämer (King); Dagmar Vaňkátová and Lubomíra Popova-Alabozova (Priestess); and Jiří Hruška (Messenger). Several showings featured, as guests of the Japanese agency, sopranos Michèle Crider and Dimitra Theodossiou (in the title part), and tenor Mario Malagnini (Radames).

The Japanese audiences, forthcoming and receptive, rewarded the Prague State Opera ensemble by copious attendance of all its performances. The atmosphere in Japan’s huge concert halls was fascinating, with bursts of applause for the soloists in the course of each night. Many of the visitors have already been Prague State Opera fans for many seasons, invariably looking forward to its visits, and more than a few of them not hesitating to travel along with the company to repeat their experience away from their home cities.

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The Prague State Opera Ballet Ensemble is holding an audition to complete vacant posts in its ensemble on Saturday, January 30, 2010, at 3:00 p.m. The address: Legerova 75, 110 00 Praha 1, 1st floor, the operation (glass) building of the Prague State Opera – entrance for employees, dance hall no. 1. Connection: Metro line A / C – Muzeum station.

More detailed information is available from Pavel Ďumbala, Art Director of the Prague State Opera Ballet Ensemble.

• Phone: +420 296 117 315, mobile: +420 724 215 964
• E-mail: dumbala@opera.cz, aujezdska@opera.cz

The Prague State Opera has in stock for you a family Christmas season packed with fairy-tale spectacles where good invariably triumphs over evil, a programme that’s sure to bring delight to grownup and junior audiences alike.

You may therefore look forward to our versions of the immortal story of the kind and unselfish Cinderella who eventually finds and gets her prince charming, or the one about the Princess Odette turned to a swan by the evil Redbeard, in a classic account of the ballet, Swan Lake. Opera-lovers are invited to come and see the enchanting story of love conquering all trials and tribulations with the aid of The Magic Flute.

The offer comprises the following roster of performances:

• Cinderella, December 20, 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.; December 22, 7:00 p.m.
• Swan Lake, December 26 and 29, 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
• The Magic Flute, December 25, 7:00 p.m.

The story of the Parisian courtesan’s ill-starred love conveyed by the romantic novel of Alexandre Dumas, fils, entered the history of music in the operatic treatment of Giuseppe Verdi. Apart from it, though, there exist a good many ballet versions of the famed literary work. The Prague State Opera currently presents a spectacular ballet production of La Dame aux camélias, choreographed by Libor Vaculík. A musical collage of various sequences from Verdi’s opera score, it was arranged by Sergey Onsoff. The production premiered in the autumn of 2003, since when it has been applauded by audiences on the company’s home turf as well as during its many tours in this country and abroad. Now La Dame aux camélias is being reintroduced to the PSO stage after a fairly long pause, for a single performance taking place on November 23, 2009. This will be followed by a series of four showings in the northern Italian cities of Trieste, Trento, and Modena, on a tour scheduled for late November and early December 2009.

La Dame aux camélias is back
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