About the ensamble

The DJKT opera ensemble is not satisfied with utilising only the “golden repertoire resources” that form a foundation of all opera houses worldwide. At the turn of the century this ensemble defi ned its objective, to take care of the rich national heritage that in many Europe countries has no precedent. The important part of the production was including Czech operas not frequently staged, such as Foerster’s Simpleton, Fibich’s Šárka, Lantern by Vítězslav Novák or Kunál’s Eyes by Otakar Ostrčil. This ensemble performed the Measure for Measure opera by Zdeněk Lukáš in the world’s premier. At the same time the Pilsen opera house has become a theatre looking for a new shape of performances that would correspond to the trends of a contemporary theatre. They have invited a lot of talented directors to cooperate who had had their debut performances there and each of them brought their individual influence into the staging poetics. Great Czech and Slovak scenographers were also working with them. Besides the performances that experienced controversial feedback, either ecstatic or negative reactions, the theatre staged highly acclaimed works. The performance of the year was Dido and Aeneas, directed by Jan Antonín Pitínský, and two performances by Jiří Herman received Alfréd Radok’s Awards: Wagner’s Flying Dutchman and Samson and Dalila by Camille Saint-Saëns. The best performance of the Opera Festival was The Bartered Bride by a young director Daniel Balatka. Currently the Pilsen opera house is managed by Jiří Pánek whose main aim is to create performances for the widest audiences. At the same time the opera management intensively focuses on seeking young talented singers, particularly in cooperation with the Vienna Music Academy (Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst) and with the organiser of the International Singing Competition of Antonín Dvořák in Carlsbad. Many singing hopefuls are then given a chance to obtain a role in one of the performances or some of them begin to cooperate permanently with the DJKT theatre (Petra Šimková Alvarez). The specifi c results of these eff orts are e.g. three nominations for the Thálie Award for extraordinary singing performance in La Bohéme 2009.

 Young soloists were hired to perform and they successfully represent Pilsen on all prominent opera stages (Radka Sehnoutková, Ivana Veberová, Richard Samek, Tomáš Kořínek, Jiří Hájek). Ivana Šaková has become a theatre permanent star, nominated a few times for the Thálie Award, or Jan Adamec and Jevhen Šokalo who became famous in the country a long time ago. The Pilsen opera house presents to the audience a lot of important guests in their performances, e.g. Eva Urbanová whose fi rst experience was in this theatre or Peter Dvorský. Soprano singer Simona Houda-Šaturová has secured a few roles and was awarded the Thálie Award for her role in Vincenzo Bellini’s Julie (the original name was Capulets and Montagues). Currently, Ivan Kusnjer, WeiLong Tao or Svatopluk Sem or Katja Beer in the role of Salome perform as guest actors in this theatre.