State Opera

Tribute to Richard Wagner I

Gala Concert

Wagner’s operas became the mainstay of the repertoire that was built up at the New German Theatre (today’s Prague State Opera) by its first director, Angelo Neumann, a close friend of Richard Wagner. During his era (1888 – 1910), he mounted over 600 performances of Wagner’s operas at the New German Theatre, apart from which he organized regular spring and autumn Wagner cycles, and even made a Russian tour with a programme of operas by the Bayreuth Master. In subsequent stages of the New German Theatre’s history, the company’s Wagnerian cult was taken heed of most notably by the principal conductors, Alexander Zemlinsky and Georg Széll. In the course of the era when the opera’s premises were renamed to Smetana Theatre and the institution was incorporated into the National Theatre, its stage became the venue of new productions of the operas Der fliegende Holländer (1959, 1986), Lohengrin (1964), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1978, 1982), Das Rheingold (1975), and Tannhäuser (1955). During the yearlong existence of the Smetana Theatre as an autonomous company, the list was complemented by a new production of Rienzi (1991). Then, the already fully independent Prague State Opera (from April 1, 1992) declared as part of its policy the programmatic continuation of the legacy of the New German Theatre. One of the first steps along this road was a new staging of Tannhäuser (first night April 10, 1993), followed four years later by Lohengrin (May 17, 1997), then Die Walküre (concert production, June 1, 1998), and after a fairly long pause, Der fliegende Holländer (May 29, 2008). The year 2010 saw a memorable moment, marking Wagner’s symbolic comeback to the building which had played host to his music, assigning it a prominent status throughout the fifty-year-long existence of the New German Theatre: the composer’s bust was unveiled in the dress circle of the historical building. This event took place on May 20, 2010, on the day of the premiere of a new production of Tristan und Isolde, directed by the prominent British conductor, Jan Latham-Koenig. The production was mounted under the patronage of the Richard Wagner Society in Prague which also co-financed, with the Prague State Opera, the making of the bust. The unveiling constituted an overture to the Wagner Congress which will be held in Prague, in 2012. The matinée, Tribute to Richard Wagner II, on May 20, 2012, will mark the official closing of the Congress.