NODO 2024: New Opera and Seven Premiere Performances
Publikováno: 4.3.2024
Ostrava (Czech Republic), March 4, 2024 – A series of world and Czech opera premieres will be offered to audiences of the 7th biennial of NODO / New Opera Days Ostrava Festival, the only festival of new opera in the Czech Republic. Thanks to the close cooperation of the two organizing institutions, the Ostrava Centre for New Music and the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre, seven productions will be staged under the direction of international production teams, demonstrating creative curiosity and the power of current artistic expression. This year's programme will present operatic and musical-theatrical works by Pascal Dusapin, František Chaloupka, Amir Shpilman, Ian Davis, Haštal Hapka, Ann Cleare and Petr Rezek. Performers will include solo singers and conductors from Europe and the USA, production teams from the Czech Republic, Austria and Israel; resident ensembles include the international Ostrava Banda, members of ONO – Ostrava New Orchestra and the Canticum Ostrava choir under the direction of Yurii Galatenko; guest performers of Italian Futurist ‘intonarumori’ instruments. The seventh biennial of the NODO Festival will take place daily from 26 to 30 June 2024 on the stages of the Jiří Myron Theatre, Antonín Dvořák Theatre, Ostrava Puppet Theatre and the Tatran Hall (Bonver Arena).
Wednesday, June 26 | The festival will open with the Czech premiere of the opera Passion (2006–07) by French composer Pascal Dusapin (1955). The opera is based on the legend of Orpheus and the story from Genesis of Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt. The opera tells the story of a long journey of two people. "I found opposing passions to set to music – war, prayer, and even death..." The production will be co-produced with Neue Oper Wien, directed by Ursula Horner and conducted by Walter Kobera.
Thursday, June 27 | The second festival evening will present our original contribution to the Year of Czech Music. The opera Sell-Out (2024) by Czech composer František Chaloupka (1981) was commissioned as a premiere by the NODO Festival. It will draw us into the story of Komenský, a digital nomad, as he walks as a pilgrim through the labyrinth of the contemporary world. An integral part of his reality is artificial intelligence, which he wants to use in his work to create a universal language for the whole of humanity. The production will be directed by Roccand conducted by Bruno Ferrandis.
Friday, June 28 | Festival Friday will feature two unconventional performances. The first is IMPACT - An Inner Journey Out of Darkness (2022–24), an opera project by two Israeli artists: composer Amir Shpilman (1980) and choreographer Shiran Eliaserov (1985). Their opera is designed for soprano, stunt woman, suspended technicians, orchestra, chorus and live electronics. There will be no shortage of live stunt action. Thanks to the support of OSTRA GROUP, the Tatran Basketball Hall (Bonver Arena) will be transformed into an opera stage. The conductor of this world premiere will be Lilianna Krych.
From the sports grounds we will move to the Ostrava Puppet Theatre to see the opera Russolo’s Bitter End. The stage is taken over by a set of intonarumori – noise instruments that were designed more than a century ago by Italian composer Luigi Russolo (1885–1947) and thus became the materialization of a futurist dream to musically represent the motions of the modernizing world. In director Petr Odo Macháček's production, intonarumori will be complemented by piano and singing. The libretto was written by Czech philosopher and great opera expert Petr Rezek (1948–2022). The musical component will be a work in progress performed and created by all the present musicians. The opera is a tribute to the artistic efforts of Luigi Russolo and Petr Rezek.
Saturday, June 29 | On Saturday, the youngest generation of composers, from the domestic scene and from overseas, will have a chance to show off. New York composer Ian Davis (1989) and Prague-based Haštal Hapka (1997), both previous residents of the Ostrava Days Institute, will present new works. Davis's opera Ephemeral Pulse will enrich an ambient sound of voices and instruments with electronics, while Hapka will incorporate a mix of the various influences he is surrounded by, including jazz and slam poetry, into his opera Once Everybody’s Here. Davis’ opera will be directed by Jiří Nekvasil and conducted by Petr Kotík, while Hapka’s will be directed by Vilma Bořkovec and conducted by Patrik Kako.
Sunday, June 30 | The finale of the seventh biennial of the NODO Festival belongs to Irish composer Ann Cleare (1983). The plot of the opera takes us to a small, pleasant garden in a Scottish town where four completely random people are trapped one day. After the initial shock, they begin generating assumptions about what happened and why. The tension between the four rises. Things come to the surface which they would otherwise be reluctant to admit... The Little Lives (2020–22), which premiered at the Munich Biennale in 2022, features a total of five soloists and a chamber ensemble, directed by Jiří Nekvasil and conducted by Bruno Ferrandis.
Advance ticket sales start on April 8th.
NODO / New Opera Days Ostrava is presented with support from the Statutory City of Ostrava, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Moravian-Silesian Region, and with thanks to other institutions, foundations, and private sector support. We would like to thank Libor and Veronika Winkler and Martin and Hana Vohánek for their continuous generous support to the Ostrava Centre for New Music. NODO 2024 is held in cooperation with Neue Oper Wien, the Ostrava Puppet Theatre and the OSTRA GROUP.
The general media partner of the festival is Czech Radio Vltava, which will record two opera performances, and the main media partner is Czech Television.
NODO / New Opera Days Ostrava is organised by the Ostrava New Music Centre and the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre. More information about our projects at www.newmusicostrava.cz and also our Facebook page.
