The National Theatre Brno has achieved an extraordinary success at the prestigious International Opera Awards 2025, often referred to as the “Opera Oscars.” The theatre received two awards – in the Festival category for the Janáček Brno International Festival 2024, and in the New Production category for Leoš Janáček’s The Excursions of Mr. Brouček, presented by NdB in co-production with Teatro Real Madrid and Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, directed by Robert Carsen and conducted by Marko Ivanović.
The awards relate to the 9th edition of the Janáček Brno Festival, which was ceremonially opened with Carsen’s production (premiere on 1 November 2024 at the Janáček Theatre). Competing against such institutions as the Paris National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the National Theatre Brno triumphed and confirmed its position among the absolute elite of the world opera scene.
In the Festival category, Janáček Brno surpassed other prestigious European festivals, including the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, the Munich Opera Festival, and Opera Forward Festival.
This outstanding achievement marks a historic milestone for the Janáček Brno Festival – not only as the only Czech festival ever awarded, but also as a two-time winner, following its first triumph in 2018. It thus joins the ranks of the world’s greats, such as the Salzburg Festival and the Aix-en-Provence Opera Festival – the only other festivals to have won this accolade more than once.
The National Theatre Brno’s successes at the International Opera Awards are not isolated cases. In 2024, it was nominated with Here I am, Orlando in the World Premiere category, and in 2022 with The Greek Passion in the New Production category (both directed by Jiří Heřman).
With this year’s double victory, the National Theatre Brno has definitively secured its place among the world’s leading opera institutions.
14. 11. 2025
