Love. Jealousy. Scheming. Social entanglements. Oh, and the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with period instruments.
The Brno National Theatre (NdB) will premiere a new version of ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ this weekend, bringing the complex love triangle of the plot to life with the music of the original version. This new production will be staged in a special collaboration with Collegium 1704, with musical staging by Václav Luks and direction by Jiří Heřman, in a co-production with Théâtre de Caen and the Slovak National Theatre.
The premiere performance will be at the Janacek Theatre on Saturday at 6 pm. Additional performances will follow on 23, 29, 30 March and 4-5 April.
‘The Marriage of Figaro’ is a comic love triangle: servants Figaro and Susanna are preparing for their wedding, but their employer Count Almaviva yearns for Susanna. Figaro must take action to keep his betrothed. Of course, there are complications with additional characters. Marcellina arrives and maintains that Figaro once promised to marry her. Cherubino, a young page, expands the focus by proclaiming his love for all women. The Count’s attempts to seduce Susanna lead to a series of comedic misunderstandings.
Eventually, the Countess, annoyed by the Count’s wayward attention, joins Figaro and Susanna to entrap the Count. Their plans go awry. In the end, the Count is forced to beg for forgiveness, he makes up with the Countess, and, spoiler alert, we finally see the marriage of Figaro to Susanna.
Collegium 1704 will incorporate baroque instruments into the music. Conductor Václav Luks approaches Mozart’s music with enormous respect: “We are playing ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ in Brno in almost its original form, without cuts, and placing our trust in the performers. The great challenge is to serve Mozart’s music as best as possible, because I think that the saying that there’s not a single note in the wrong place is true to the utmost with Mozart; every detail has its purpose and comes unmistakably from the hand of the genius that is Mozart, and I believe that it is also immutable.”
Heřman, the artistic director of NdB Opera, added: “The combination of a new production of ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ from the opera ensemble at the Brno National Theatre with the Collegium 1704 ensemble brings a completely new perspective to this brilliant work; thanks to period instruments, the audience can hear the music as it would have sounded in Mozart’s time.”
Performances with Collegium 1704 are to take place this season only. ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ will be staged in the 2025/2026 season by Václav Luks with the orchestra of NdB’s Janáček Opera.
“Our new production touches on delicate romantic relationships,” Heřman said. “I believe that the audience will find something of themselves in each character, with the lightness and energy of Mozart’s music, in an epic production that plays with the magic of the theatre.”
BALLET
NdB Ballet is currently preparing a version of the classic ‘Don Quijote’ (Don Quixote). The ballet staple is about the famous Spanish knight of Cervantes’ canonical novel, who turned his passionate reading of classic tales into real-life fantastical quests.
This version of the ballet premiered at the Compania Nacional de Danza in Madrid in 2015. It was created by José Carlos Martínez, then-artistic director of the company and star emeritus of the Paris Opera, who is currently artistic director at that world-leading stage.
The premiere will be 25 April in Janacek Theatre.
Ballet NdB 2: Serenity / A healthy dose of madness / The House of Bernarda Alba premiered last week. It will have additional performances on 25, 26 March and 1, 17 April, with more to follow.
DRAMA
Several fascinating plays that touch on important social issues are now in the NdB rotation, although they are staged in Czech.
Mešita (The Mosque) is a funny play that displays the breadth and creativity of local writers and performers. The play, written by NdB director Martin Glaser and Olga Šubrtová, and directed by Glaser, breaks the fourth wall of the actor-audience relationship with a storyline addressing a timely topic: how should you deal with inclusion and immigration within a modern community.
The range of actors and acting, the stage design, and the multimedia presentation focus the attention on the issues, poking fun at local institutions with self-referential humor and several layers of plot that offer constant surprising turns. Several performances have sold out, proving that the local drama community is alive and well – and funny.
Maryša, a classic of Moravian theatre written in 1894 by the brothers Alois and Vilém Mrštík, premiered earlier this month. The mix of contemporary and traditional makes for a powerful connection to the ever-present scourge of domestic violence and violence against women.
Vlastenci (Patriots) is an excellent play that digs into real-world geopolitical drama. Written by Peter Morgan and translated by Michael Žantovský, it recounts the turmoil of Russian politics and the rise of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Its world premiere was at the Almeida Theatre in London on 12 July 2022; Brno audiences were first treated with the local version in January.
If you want a bit of Czech practice, an excellent version of Hamlet is in rotation. Read it beforehand in English, then follow along as the Czech interpretation flows over you in the theatre.
The National Theatre of Brno (NdB) presents opera, ballet, and theatre. Click here for the full schedule and further details.
