TEREZÍN OPERA CYCLE
THE NATIONAL MORAVIAN-SILESIAN THEATRE OPENS THE TEREZÍN OPERA CYCLE TO RAISE AWARENESS OF GREAT CZECHOSLOVAK COMPOSERS WHO WERE HOLOCAUST VICTIMS
National Moravian-Silesian Theatre’s opera company with its dramaturgy opens the Terezín Opera Cycle. There are three remarkable opera composers to be introduced within the cycle as a reminder of the interwar Czechoslovak music—these are Hans Krása, Viktor Ullmann, and Pavel Haas. None of them survived for their Jewish origin. The cycle was opened with Hans Krása’s BETROTHAL IN A DREAM that premiered on 17 February 2022 at the Antonín Dvořák Theatre.
This year's contribution to our series is therefore two out of three extant operas by Tešín native Viktor Ullmann. These are the one-act opera THE BROKEN JUG (Der zerbrochene Krug) from 1942 and THE EMPEROR OF ATLANTIS OR DEATH'S REFUSAL (Der Kaiser von Atlantis oder Die Tod-Verweigerung) from 1944. Both works were created during the war years, the later in the Theresienstadt ghetto. The opening night is scheduled for 16 February 2023 at the Antonín Dvořák Theatre.
Alongside the Smetana Opera Cycle, the three-part Terezín Opera Cycle is the NDM’s second major contribution to the Year of Czech Music whose jubilee falls for 2024 (a year that ends with number four). This time, the number four appears also at the end of the date 17 October 1944 and is a tragic reminder of the violent liquidation of the Czech cultural elite. I think that this is also an aspect that should be highlighted and reflected during the celebrations within the Year of Czech Music, whose tradition was founded in 1924 on the occasion of Bedřich Smetana’s birth centenary,” concluded Jiří Nekvasil.