On this last Sunday of the month, we would like to present our English-speaking readers with a concise run-down of the main news from the Czech classical music world of the past month!
27.5.: The Janáček Brno festival announced it will be going forward with a slightly modified program from September 28th to October 16th. Original article here.
27.5.: Restart. ReStart. RestArt. ReStArt. StArt. That is the moto of the new season of the Moravian- Silesian Theater in Ostrava. There have been no changes to next season’s opera and ballet. Original article here.
31.5.: Famed costume designer of film and theater, Jan Růžička, dies at 74. Original article here.
1.6.: The Minister of Culture announced on Facebook, that his proposal to allow gatherings of spectators above 500 people would be in effect starting June 8th. Original Czech article here.
2.6.: Composer, improviser, and pedagogue Markéta Procházková-Lutková dies at age 56. English-language article here.
2.6.: Anděl, the oldest Czech music award, launched this year classical music category. This year the 29th annual ceremony took place online. Original article here.
3.6.: The Czech National Museum purchased a letter written by Mozart’s youngest son, Franz Xavier Wolfgang Mozart, expanding its collection of Mozart correspondence. Original article here.
3.6.: The Prague Spring Festival, which had been offering online concerts throughout the lockdown, broadcast Leonard Bernstein conducting the Czech Philharmonic during the Prague Spring Festival in 1990. Original article here.
3.6.: The National Theater and the State Opera announce they are cancelling, replacing, and postponing planned productions. Original article here.
9.6.: The new music ensemble Ostravská Banda has been presenting online concerts every Wednesday, since May 1st. All recordings are still available on their website here. Original articles here and here.
9.6.: The chamber cycle of the Lípa Musica festival has gone forward with its second concert, moved from the municipal park to the Jirásek theater in Česká Lípa, CZ. The first took place on May 22nd, also at the Jirásek theater. Original article here.
12.6: On June 12th, the National Theater Opera performed for the first time in three months during a farewell to the 19/20 season called In Front of the Curtain. The orchestra and soloists presented excerpts from a diverse repertoire to a reduced audience. Original article here.
14.6.: After weeks of deliberation, the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade anouced it would support non-state-funded cultural organizations, distributing up to 1 billion crowns (about 37 million Euros). Original article here.
16.6.: The NODO festival for contemporary opera, which takes place biannually in Ostrava, CZ, has begun ticket sales for the new festival dates, from August 28th to 30th, 2020. Original article here.
17.6.: The Czech Ensemble Baroque celebrated its return to the concert stage days after public performing was allowed again, on the 16th of June, 2020. Original article here.
18.6.: The Brno Philharmonic took the precautions at its first public concert, on June 17th, the first since lock down, quite seriously. Original article here.
21.6.: Rudolf Zelenka, one of the pioneers of early music in the Czech Republic, dies at the age of 77. Original article here.
22.6.: The string-insturment company Strunal Schönbach, based in the Czech town of Luby u Chebu, has seen a 70-80 percent drop in sales since the lockdown and could not meet the criteria for reorganization set for it by the local government before the pandemic. Original article here.
22.6.: The National Theater in Brno has tried an wholly new approach to ticket sales for its straight theater shows: Starting June 22nd, spectators can buy tickets online for a symbolic 1CZK and decide on the final price of the ticket after the performance is over. Original article here.
23.6.: On June 23rd, the Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK) gave its first concert since the pandemic, which was simultaneously a farewell to their chief conductor Pietari Inkinen. Original article here.
24.6.: The Summer Festival of Baroque Music in Prague will invite audiences to enjoy the music of royal courts in authentic locations over the course of 7 concerts, between July 23rd and September 7th. Original article here.
25.6.: The National Theater in Brno announces that it will move the 19/20 premiers to next season, which it will begin early, in August, thanks to an intense rehearsal schedule over the summer. Original article here.
25.6.: The Czech Philharmonic played an open-air concert for a 500-member audience of mostly hospital workers at the Sychrov castle. Original article here.
