The Prague State Opera A History of the Theatre in Pictures and Dates (Book)

The Prague State Opera in cooperation with the Slovart publishing house publishes a representative book tracking the history of this significant cultural institution since its opening in 1888 till the end of the 2002/2003 season. The publication called The Prague State Opera – Theatre History in Pictures and Dates is focusing solely on the opera featured at the scene, even though the theatre under various names also served to presentation of drama plays, operettas and ballet. The Prague State opera plans to publish the volumes concentrating on those genres in the next years.

The author, Tomáš Vrbka, acquaints the readers at the book’s 600 pages with all events of the 115 past seasons in form of short portraits commemorating the directors, the greatest singers, conductors, stage managers, stage and costume designers. The text concerning individual seasons is always opening with the list of all the season premieres. The book contains 1300 illustrations collected from both the Czech and foreign sources. Many of them are published for the first time ever. All the texts are translated into English and German and the book is complemented with the name and title indexes, the index of roles, overview of premieres and new stagings.

The archive of the National Theatre, the theatre department of the National Museum, the Austrian Cultural Forum in Prague as well as number of European and oversea opera houses and archives participated in the collection of the graphic material. The publication came into existence with the financial support of the Czech-German Fund for the Future and with sponsorship of te Schneidersöhne Papier Praha and the printing works Libertas a. s. The book can be purchased for 1,180 Czech crowns at selected bookstores or when attending performances at the Prague State Opera.

Currently, preparations continue of a second part, this time devoted to operetta and ballet. In this connection, the Prague State Opera would like to address the public with a request to help it acquire or buy any materials, which may serve as illustrations in the new publication. They are mainly documents from the era of the New German Theatre and the Fifth of May (5. května) Theatre, especially photographs of conductors, singers, dancers, stage directors, pictures from plays, playbills and almanacs, posters, stage and costume sketches. Everybody in possession of any such documents has the opportunity to take part in the recording of the rich history of the theatre for the future! (Please, send your offers in writing to: Státní opera Praha, dokumentační centrum, Legerova 75, 110 00 Praha 1, or e-mail: vrbka@opera.cz).