PERFORMANCE DETAIL

Libretto by Pavel Haas after the historical novel by Josef Winckler (1881 – 1966) Dr. Eisenbart from 1928

Music director Jakub Klecker
Stage director Ondřej Havelka

Alongside the Smetana Opera Cycle Ostrava 2024, the NMST’s dramaturgic series Terezín Opera Cycle represents the second major contribution of the NMST to the Year of Czech Music 2024. Its aim is to bring to the stage works by composers who were an important part of our cultural history, but whose human and artistic voices were violently silenced by the Nazi regime. Following the operas of Hans Krása and Viktor Ullmann, the third composer to complement the trio is Pavel Haas, a native from Brno and a composer.

The elder brother of the famous actor Hugo Haas and one of the most promising students of Leoš Janáček, he composed his Charlatan between 1934 and 1937. Pavel wrote the Charlatan in 1934–37. It is the composer’s only completed opera and an indisputable testament to his musical and dramatic talent.

Haas drew inspiration for the story of his libretto from a novel by the German writer Joseph Winckler, which recounts the adventures of a real historical figure, the German itinerant doctor Johann Andreas Eisenbarth. However, as a Jew, he had to conceal his inspiration from the German author. We can therefore read in the original that it was inspired by the Czech drama The Ointment Seller from the 14th century. The name of the main character of the libretto, Doctor Pustrpalk, comes from this old drama as well.

The storyline follows the life of a travelling quack surgeon during the 17th and 18th century. Feel his emotions in the middle of a town market, experience the mixture of quackery, trickery, and real healing, the great successes and bitter falls, the humour and joy of the people juxtaposed with loneliness. Grotesque and tragedy, all alternating in constant stage action before your eyes.

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