Press reviews
NODO on the World Map of Classical Music Festivals
28.4.2026
British music magazine Gramophone, the oldest and most widely read classical music publication in Europe, has included NODO / New Opera Days Ostrava in its annual world guide to classical music festivals. Out of more than a hundred festivals from around the world, only three Czech festivals are fea... View Article
The Wire: New Opera Days Ostrava
19.8.2024
The notion of opera has undergone challenges for at least the last 50 years. At the 2024 New Opera Days Ostrava, though, there are bigger challenges to be made. Doomsday prophecies and the solace of cold eternity were in store. Kurt Gottschalk, The Wire | read the whole article below ↓ ... View Article
František Chaloupka: I Do Not Trust Composers Who Talk Too Much
17.1.2024
In the Czech Music Quarterly magazine, an interview with Czech composer František Chaloupka was published. In the text, American composer Anna Heflin speaks to him about spirituality, writing his own libretti, and, somewhat ironically, composers talking too much about composition and also about the ... View Article
Glissando: Resonating Breath of Air. Impressions of Prometeo by Luigi Nono
3.2.2023
The Czech premiere of Prometeo – The Tragedy of the Hearing by the Italian avant-garde composer Luigi Nono was realized as part of the NODO / New Opera Days Ostrava festival on June 30, 2022. The report from that hot early evening in Triple Hall Karolina was brought, among other things, by the Polis... View Article
Czech Music Quarterly: Everything Without Borders and for the First Time. New Opera Days Ostrava 2022
28.11.2022
A conventional production in an opera house, a six-hour music marathon, a classical drama interwoven with contemporary music, a performance on a ski slope, or a giant concert in a former electric power plant. All this was included in the eight works presented during the course of six evenings (June ... View Article
Wire: New Opera Days Ostrava
15.8.2022
Since the breakthrough works of Robert Ashley in the 1970s and 80s, the word opera has been more or less up for grabs. The basics of the form – acting, singing, storyline, costume, sets – are no longer givens, making it hard to determine what constitutes the operatic. A sibling to the biennial New M... View Article
Czech Music Quarterly: Notes on the premiere of Thy Kingdom Come
4.7.2018
Alois Hába the VisionaryNotes on the premiere of Thy Kingdom ComeVlasta Reittererová We bring this text on the occasion of the world premiere of Thy Kingdom Come, an opera by Czech composer Alois Hába (1893–1973), composed using microtones (i.e. intervals smaller than those found on a piano), speci... View Article
BACHTRACK: NODO MARCHES ON WITH DOUBLE BILL OF CÍGLER AND AYRES
30.7.2016
The third night of New Opera Days Ostrava was the lengthiest and most formal night of the festival, taking place in the Antonín Dvořák Theatre and consisting of a double bill of two hour-long operas. Petr Cíglers Protracted Sinuous Movement of a Longitudinal Object, a NODO commission, was presented ... View Article
Bachtrack: NODO winds down with phenomenal Oresteia
2.7.2016
During the second scene of Oresteia, baritone Holger Falk vacillated wildly between his deep, low range and a higher falsetto, flinging his voice to the edges of human possibility in his portrayal of Kassandra who, in spurning the Greek god Apollo, has acquired the gift of fortune-telling simultaneo... View Article
BACHTRACK: AMBITIOUS WORLD PREMIÈRE OF AT THE WATERS OF LETHE IN OSTRAVA
29.6.2016
The first night having taken place on the outskirts of town in the Coal Mine Bathrooms, I was curious as to where Id land on the second night of New Opera Days Ostrava. This time I found myself at Cooltour, a more conventional theater above a coffeeshop/bookstore complete with outdoor patio from whi... View Article
BACHTRACK: AMBITIOUS WORLD PREMIÈRE OF AT THE WATERS OF LETHE IN OSTRAVA
29.6.2016
The first night having taken place on the outskirts of town in the Coal Mine Bathrooms, I was curious as to where Id land on the second night of New Opera Days Ostrava. This time I found myself at Cooltour, a more conventional theater above a coffeeshop/bookstore complete with outdoor patio from whi... View Article
BBC Music Magazine: A Diamond In The Rough
6.6.2014
Elizabeth Davis visits a world-ranking contemporary music festival and discovers an unpolished gem in a city often overshadowed by its minig history. View Article
Signal to Noise: Opera Days
22.9.2012
Over the last 12 years, the biennial Ostrava Days festival in the Czech Republic has built a reputation as a showcase for contemporary orchestral music in Europe. Under the guidance of founder, director and chief conductor Petr Kotik, the Os- travské centrum nové hudby (Ostrava Cen- ter for Ne... View Article
