On Saturday, 4 November 2023, a concert of the Janáček Opera Orchestra of the National Theatre in Brno “Janáček to the Start!” took place at the Mahen Theatre in Brno. As part of the opening ceremony, a Memorandum of Cooperation between the Ministry of Culture and the National Theatre in Brno was signed and the programme of the 9th International Janáček Brno Festival, which will take place from 1 to 24 November 2024, was published.
The opening ceremony took place in the presence of the Minister of Culture Martin Baxa, who together with the Director of the National Theatre in Brno Martin Glaser signed, before the first notes began, a memorandum of cooperation for the next three years. The Ministry of Culture decided to conclude the cooperation agreement with the National Theatre Brno mainly because the International Opera Festival Janáček Brno, which was the first in the Czech Republic to win the prestigious The International Opera Awards for the best opera festival of the year in 2018 and maintains a consistently high quality and artistic level, is particularly well suited to fulfilling the intentions of the State Cultural Policy for the years 2021 – 2025.
“During its existence, the Janáček Brno Opera Festival has developed into a unique event with great international acclaim. Thanks to its international reputation, the festival has established artistic collaborations unique to the Czech Republic. The signed Memorandum of Cooperation will ensure the financial stability of the festival, enabling long-term planning of the festival programme. The Ministry of Culture will support the festival with CZK 15 million for the duration of the agreement. This will significantly help the organisers in negotiations with foreign partners whose engagements are planned for years to come. The Czech audience can continue to enjoy world-class guests and great musical experiences,” said Minister of Culture Martin Baxa.
The main aim of the festival is to commemorate the importance of Leoš Janáček’s personality as a composer in the place where he worked and composed for more than fifty years. Given the current popularity of Janáček’s works in the world, it is necessary to invest in the development and use of this potential maximally. Brno is a city intrinsically linked to 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. Concerts and productions take place in the architectural gems of Villa Tugendhat, the National Theatre in Brno, the Leoš Janáček Memorial and other attractive venues.
“The festival programme for the year 2024 will touch stellar heights. The level of quality has been raised in a short time to a point that meets the standards of a first-class European cultural event. I am very pleased that the importance of the festival is also recognized by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, with whom we have concluded a memorandum of cooperation that will ensure predictable funding. Only in this way can the achieved level be maintained in the future,” said Martin Glaser, director of the National Theatre Brno.
During the Saturday evening, excerpts from Leoš Janáček’s operas were performed by the excellent soprano Kateřina Kněžíková, whose interpretation of Kát’a Kabanová was appreciated by the audience of the Glyndebourne Festival. She was accompanied by Václava Krejčí Housková, soloist of the Janáček Opera of the National Theatre Brno, and the special guest of the evening was baritone Svatopluk Sem. The Orchestra of the Janáček Opera also played compositions by Brno composers such as Pavel Haas and Vítězslava Kapralová.
Ministry of Culture of Czech Republic