An incredible 250 musicians will take over the stage of the State Opera in Prague on Tuesday 20 June 2023. Arnold Schönberg's monumental, late romantic work Gurre-Lieder (Songs of Gurre), based on 14th-century Danish legend about King Waldemar and his love for Tove Lille, will return to the Prague concert stage after seventeen years. This work will return to the present State Opera House after an incredible 102 years, since it was first and last performed here in 1921 in the Czech premiere at the then New German Theatre, conducted by Alexander Zemlinsky.
In the upcoming performance, the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno and the Slovak Philharmonic Choir and six soloists will join forces, including one of the most sought-after Wagnerian tenors of today, Michael Weinius, or the charismatic Norwegian baritone, finalist of the Belvedere Competition 2007, Yngve Søberg. The role of the charming Tove will be sung by German soprano Susanne Bernhard. Among Czech singers we can look forward to the soloist of the Semperoper Dresden, mezzo-soprano Štěpánka Pučálková. Petr Popelka, whose international career has been gaining extraordinary intensity in recent years, will be at the conductor's podium.
The concert will be broadcast live on the Czech and Norwegian Radio and the German MDR. The recording will be made by the Czech Television. The Prague performance will be preceded by a concert on 18 June as a part of the Smetana Litomyšl International Music Festival.
The project was created on the occasion of the celebration of 100 years of the Czech Radio.
