Photo: National Museum
A new exhibition opens on Wednesday evening at the Czech Center New York presenting Czech female opera singers whose careers brought them onto the stage of one of the world’s most prestigious opera houses – the Metropolitan Opera in New York. From opera great Emmy Destinn right up until contemporary star Magdalena Kožená, these Czech prima donnas performed under the batons of world-famous conductors and alongside other renowned singers, sometimes starring in the Met’s first productions of major Czech operas. I spoke to the exhibition’s curator, the head of the Antonín Dvořák Museum in Prague Dr. Veronika Vejvodová, in advance of the exhibition opening.
What’s the concept behind the exhibition – why female opera singers and why now?
“The exhibition aims to present Czech prima donnas who had the opportunity to perform in one of the most prestigious opera houses in the world – the New York Metropolitan Opera. The exhibition is actually a continuation of our collaboration between the National Museum and the Czech Centre New York. In particular the music exhibitions that the Czech National Museum prepared in the past few years for the Czech Centre were a big success in New York. We started with Dvořák because I work at the Dvořák museum, and the first exhibition was in 2014 with The New World Symphony. We brought the original manuscript from our collections to the Czech Centre New York for one week – it was something really special.
See the rest here.
Author: Anna Fodor