Antonín Dvořák: Dimitrij

Next to Rusalka (Water Nymph), the opera Dmitrij, based on the libretto by Marie Cervinková-Riegrova, represents Dvořák’s most significant stage piece thanks to its marvelous music richness and dramatic intensity. In the Year of Czech Music and, simultaneously, in the year of the 100th anniversary of the death of Antonín Dvořák, the State Opera Prague is paying off its debt to this unrighteously neglected oeuvre. Dvořák largely adapted the opera several times so that, basically, he eventually produced two versions, which used to be variously combined in all productions following Dvořák’s death. The State Opera Prague has decided to stage the first version in the form it was produced for the first time in the New Czech Theatre in Prague on October 8, 1882. The opera draws on the Russian history of the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, following up with the plot of Musorgski’s Boris Godunov.

Premiere: Apr 29, 2004