Oráč z Čech

The author of the music is one of the most important Czech musicians, Emil Viklický (1948), a jazz pianist and composer, a graduate of the American Berklee College, who plays and composes "across various musical genres". He won recognition on Czech and foreign stages not only as a musician performing in leading jazz groups (alongside the most important stars of world jazz music), but also as a composer of artificial music. Several of his larger musical-dramatic works fall into this area of ​​creation. One of the most important is the opera Der Ackermann aus Böhmen (The Plowman from Bohemia) based on the works of a Czech author known as Jan ze Žatec, writing in German. His work belongs to the oldest and at the same time the most important literary creations written in the Czech cultural context and became a connecting link between the Czech and German-speaking inhabitants of the "heart of Europe".

Director's word: "I perceive Emil Viklický's opera 'The Czech Plowman' as a spiritual opera. The libretto by Pavel Dominik is based on the medieval disputation of Jan of Žatec from 1401, and the very fact that it refers to over 600-year-old thinking imbued with nascent humanism gives this musical 'dialogue' a completely timeless dimension. The ploughman, an allegorical prototype of a man trying to cope with the death of his beloved woman, talks with the personified Death about the meaning of human life and finally comes to the very 'judgement of God': the role of Death in life is significant, it gives life meaning, and again, without life there would be there was no death either. In life, firm moral goals—and faith—are important. But what are moral principles nowadays and what should be believed? This article leads us to these questions. Even today, we still try to avoid death instead of stopping and taking the time to talk with it in our hectic times. That's how we learn something, that's how we better understand this beautiful life.”