Live, Video: Kritiken zu klassischen Konzerten, Opern, Ballett und Tanz finden | Jaroslav Březina

Damiano Michieletto’s production of Janáček’s opera breaks a key tenet of high-concept opera: where it should reveal, it obfuscates. 

Aribert Reimann's Lear takes no prisoners in a disturbing portrayal of a world gone awry, but Barbora Horáková's scattergun direction adds to the confusion. 

Jakub Hrůsa, the Czech Philharmonic and a superb cast of singers give the full treatment to Smetana’s celebratory paean to the Czech nation.

Fine vocal and musical performances can't overcome Sláva Daubnerová's staging which misses the mark.

Shostakovich's murderess comes to terrifying life in Martin Čičvák's smart, sensational production for the Prague State Opera. 

A strong international cast and fine musicianship from the orchestra carries on Strauss's legacy with a smart, antic romp.

The Spanish director's emotionally-sapped staging for the Prague National Theatre travels to Brno for the Janáček Festival.

The National Theater revives Jaromír Weinberger opera Schwanda the Bagpiper with energy, affection and overly active imagination.

Powerful visuals can't compensate for an otherwise empty production of Janáček’s gripping tragedy.

All the energy is in the pit in this flat production of a time-honored favorite.

Director Barbora Horáková Joly and conductor Jiří Rožeň offer a fresh take on a pair of 20th-century psychodramas.

Slovak director Zuzana Gilhuus' serendipitous production could hardly be more timely.

A colorful, light-hearted approach captures the spirit of Prokofiev's LʼAmour des trois oranges.

Smetana's Libuše makes a timely reappearance in Prague.

José Cura shines as a designer but brings surprisingly little staging expertise to his latest directorial effort.

Prague's National Theater wraps its season with a wickedly funny revival of Offenbach's audacious operetta.

With expert assistance from Dennis Russell Davies, the overlooked Brno Philharmonic makes the most of a contemporary cantata.

In a delirious opening to the new opera season, Prague's National Theatre puts a contemporary spin on Carl Orff and the Brothers Grimm.

In Brno, Janáček's home, at the theatre and festival that bear his name, Jenůfa receives a performance with all the musical and dramatic intensity you might wish for.

Whilst the spirit of Mozart permeates the Estates Theatre in Prague, it was sadly absent in both the staging and singing of his “work of uninterrupted perfection”.  

It's not for nothing that Janáček's opera is properly titled Její pastorkyňa (Her Stepdaughter). Karita Mattila's Kostelnička was at the centre of a powerful concert performance of Jenůfa.

Clumsy staging undercuts a fine musical performance at the National Theater's season finale.

The fantasy characters prove to be more interesting than the real ones in a Czech treatment of Engelbert Humperdinck's fairy-tale classic.

Baffling staging muddles a politically charged period piece that still has the power to perturb.

Is it opera, or operetta? Actually, Pucciniʼs La rondine looked more like 1930s Hollywood - men in tuxes, women in glamorous gowns, socialites with endless leisure time, people who barely know each other falling passionately in love – the only thing missing was Greta Garbo.

The National Theatre in Prague should be the second-best place in the world to see Leoš Janáček's charming opera The Cunning Little Vixen. But its current production, new in the repertoire this season, is such a disappointment.