National Theatre

Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical is staged for the first time at the The National Theatre’s production of Follies will return for another run next year, director Dominic Cooke has said, as he also confirmed that a cast recording will be released.

The opera Libuše occupies a unique position in Czech national culture. Smetana composed it as a festive opera to be performed on occasions celebrating the Czech nation. The first such was the opening of the National Theatre in Prague in 1881, when the work was premiered. Supraphon’s catalogue already contains CDs of Smetana’s Libuše in two live complete recordings documenting the interpretational mastery of the artists associated with the National Theatre: the legendary recording of the performance in 1983 marking the reopening of the theatre after its reconstruction and featuring Gabriela Benacková in the lead role, and the 1995 recording of the new production of Libuše at the National, when the lead role was undertaken by Eva Urbanová.

The opera Šárka could be termed a joint work of deep love and feeling. Zdenek Fibich composed it at the end of the 19th century to the libretto of Anežka Schulzová, his pupil and love of his life. The story of Šárka loosely links up to the action of the festive opera Libuše, created by Bedrich Smetana. It depicts the outbreak of the so-called Maidens’ War following the death of the mythical Princess, when women wanted to regain the privileges they had once enjoyed under Libuše’s reign.