It has staged productions by leading international composers such as Robert Carsen, Claus Guth, David Pountney, Kornél Mundruczó, Robert Wilson, Calixto Bieito, Harry Kupfer, Peter Konwitschny, Tatiana Gürbaca, David Radok and Jiří Kylián, and has collaborated with leading conductors such as Jakub Hrůša, Tomáš Netopil, Tomáš Hanus, Robert Jindra and Marko Ivanović. Cooperation with leading opera houses – whether in the form of guest performances or co-productions in the creation of productions for the festival – is also key, including the Welsh National Opera, Staatsoper Berlin, Teatro Real Madrid, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opera Antwerp, Staatsteather Nürnberg, Theatre an der Wien, Wiener Staatsoper, Göteborg Opera and others.
In just six years, the Janáček Brno Festival has become one of the best opera festivals in the world and was the first in the Czech Republic to win the prestigious International Opera Awards for the best festival of 2018. The National Theatre Brno has thus placed its festival in the company of the best artists and companies from all over the opera world.
Janáček Brno has gained a reputation as a dramaturgically profiled event with not only supra-regional, but above all international scope. As statistics from ticket sales show, the festival is regularly visited by audiences from more than 30 countries. The Janáček – Brno connection is a very strong brand that has considerable potential for further growth with significance for the whole region and the Czech Republic. Given the current popularity of Janáček’s works in the world, it is necessary to invest as much as possible in the development and use of this potential. Brno is a city inseparably linked with Leoš Janáček – this, together with the festival, creates a magnet for visitors and the professional public with a global reach. The exclusivity of the festival also lies in the environment of the city and region associated with the personality of the master. The festival presents concerts and productions in the architectural gems of the region (Villa Tugendhat, the National Theatre in Brno, the Leoš Janáček Memorial and other attractive spaces in the region).
The main aim of the festival is to commemorate the importance of Leoš Janáček’s composer personality in the place where he worked and created for more than fifty years, in the form of a prestigious biennial. The festival dramaturgy is based on the confrontation of the conception of L. Janáček’s work by prominent artistic personalities and placing Janáček’s work in the context of the time of its creation as well as in the contemporary context. The festival thus enables the continuous development of the interpretation of Leoš Janáček’s works at the highest international level.