How Dvořák, Smetana, and Janáček created the Czech opera heritage and helped save a vanishing culture.
Mark your calendar for Wednesday March 22, to hear Mark Tiarks present Czech It Out! in-person at the Santa Fe Women Club. Mark will share his knowledge of the musical, political, and cultural influences that shaped Czech opera.
Composing an opera was not just a musical activity in the Czech lands during the 19th and early 20th century, it was a part of a concerted movement to reclaim a vibrant language and culture that had been dismantled during 300 years of outside rule by the Austrian state. Focusing on three main story types—the patriotic epic, the rural village comedy, and folk or fairy tales—these three great composers created masterpieces that also spurred enormous national pride. We will look at examples of each type, with a special focus on Dvořák’s Rusalka, his next-to-last and finest opera.
Please join the Santa Fe Opera Guild on Wednesday, March 22 at 6:00 PM for Czech It Out! Check-in will begin at 5:30 PM.
Admission is $10 for members and $15 for non-members. To attend this event, please click on the registration link below. If you have questions, please contact events@santafeoperaguild.org.
About The Santa Fe Opera's Production: The Santa Fe Opera's production of Dvořák’s Rusalka will be directed by the acclaimed Sir David Pountney whose vision is of a Freudian fairy tale set in a psychiatric hospital in Vienna. Led by conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, Ailyn Pérez sings the title role. Tickets for the Santa Fe Opera's performances are on sale now.
Mark Tiarks is a grizzled veteran of the professional opera world, having held leadership positions at Santa Fe Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Portland Opera, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and a grizzled newcomer to the world of daily journalism, writing about and reviewing opera, classical music, and theater for the Santa Fe New Mexican. He is also an acclaimed speaker on cultural topics who has been described as “like having Albert Einstein for content and Stephen Colbert for its witty delivery.”