Czech Republic Festival Janáček Brno 2024 [2] – Ondřej Kyas, The Other City: Soloists, Ensemble Opera Diversa / Gabriela Tardonová (conductor), Theatre on Orli Street, Brno, 22.11.2024. (GT)
Production:
Director – Katerina Křívanková
Sets and Costume design – Sylvia Marková
Video projection – Tomáš Hrůza
Lighting – Anna Laborová
Cast:
Protagonist (sung) – Aleš Janiga
Protagonist (spoken) – Lukáš Rieger
Alweyra – Jana Vondrů
The Maledict – Pavel Slivka
Štamgast – Tomáš Chloupek
Sudička – Aneta Podracká Bendová
Librarian – Michael Robotka
Waiter’s wife – Alžbĕta Symerská
Priest – Libor Skokan
Based on Michal Ajvaz’s novel Druhé Mĕsto (The Other City), the contemporary composer Ondřej Kyas wrote this two-act opera, and was honoured by a single performance during the Janáček Festival – a fine feature of this festival to give opportunities to Czech artists. The Theatre on Orli street in central Brno served as an adequate venue for this avant-garde stage work with an enthusiastic cast of young actors and singers, the Ensemble Opera Diversa concentrates on original musical and theatre repertoire, established in the twenty-first century, the company gives twenty programmes annually and centred on its base of Brno. The company aims at innovativeness, dramaturgy, and concerts with the Ensemble Versus chamber choir. An important aspect of the company is entering into a live dialogue with the audience.
In the theatre were two video screens which assisted in the narrative throughout, the orchestra of about thirty players were located behind the screens and the staging consisted of raised platforms on the right and centre stage with a desk on the left. Each character interpreted several different characters during the two acts, either singing or narrating, consequently the altering personas made it difficult to follow, although it was all more fleshed out in the second half of the performance.
The musical accompaniment comprised an onstage orchestra including a small strings group, several brass and woodwind instruments, keyboard and percussion. The score was deeply reliant on twentieth-century influences from Bartók, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein and Kurt Weill. The cast included three female and five male singers with a narrator, the performance was led in Act I by the singers performing on the raised levels, while narrations from the protagonist at the desk (who alternatively smoked a pipe or drank a can of beer during the show). Action was confined to altercations on the central platform involving a sword fight and fist fight. The standard of performance was very high, it was quite clear the players believed in what they were doing, and each performer transformed into different characters or roles in the two hours of the opera. Some of the singers were better than those I heard the previous evening of Jenůfa (review here) and perhaps this is their first steps on a stage career.
This is a story of borders, allegoric tales, cold war illusions, societal attitudes and of changing loyalties, often difficult to comprehend, yet Act II cleared up many of the uncertainties which prevailed before. There was more expressed violence with a fight between characters which was resolved peacefully at the end, yet this show demanded much indulgence from the audience. I found the narrative of crossing borders into different realms or worlds reflected perhaps the Cold War for Czechs and the forbidden travel beyond the Iron Curtain which caused illusions about a life only known through films or rock music. I remember visiting East Berlin in the 1970s when just a few steps eastwards took one into a quite different environment. Also, a visit for me to the divided city of Nicosia was another place of divided illusions and human values. This consciously, or subconsciously inspired Ajvaz’s novel, and indeed the composer’s writing of this opera.
Another factor, as he writes, ‘Some kind of St Vitus’s Cathedral, even bigger than the one at Prague Castle, is moving around the Sobeslav district at a speed of 170 mph.’ There is surrealism in the opera and the appearance of snakes and tigers which introduces comedy, as Kyas conveys ‘is an idiosyncratic reaction to the comfortless greyness of the Normalization Era of the 1970s and 80s, nourished by surviving remnants of a child’s perception of all those gloomy and glamourous mysteries accumulated and vanished in the superorganism of the Czech capital.’ Ondřej Kyas wrote his opera between 2015 and 2019, however the premiere was delayed owing to the pandemic, after which he shortened the stage work and sacrificed a chorus and several roles.
The story is about an unnamed protagonist who discovers a book in an unknown language and seeks an academic who discloses another city that only exists in parallel with our reality, yet the protagonist decides to discover this mysterious world. His journey entails mysterious meetings with guardians of the border, and he becomes involved in strange adventures at night encountering mysterious beasts. Among his adventures, he meets a girl who lives in both cities, she is Klara – a waitress and in the other city is a high priestess Alweyra and who is threatened by dangerous forces. The allure of the mysterious and unknown world and its lifestyle intrigues him and eventually this search leads him to begin losing his own bearings and home city.
The constantly changing images of the visual projections were essential to what we saw and heard and were either confusing or a help in understanding the quickly shifting narrative on the stage. The audience were close to the action and the performers: the Alweyra of Jana Vondrů revealed a very talented singing actress, with a rich soprano and a strong personality; of her fellow singers, the protagonist singing part was excellently performed by Aleš Janiga, other powerful portrayals were by Aneta Podracká Bendová as the Young Woman, also as Sudička, Mysterious Girl, and Fate. The Maledict of Pavel Slivka also portrayed the Merchant, Barman and the Guardian of the Temple. The singers’ quick changes were confusing, yet it is clear this ensemble are highly gifted, and several may look forward to fine careers on the stage. One should add the constant presence of the speaking part of the Protagonist taken by Lukáš Rieger who voiced throughout the unfolding adventures of the main characters.
The orchestra were excellent and finely directed by Gabriela Tardonová and ensured a brightly illustrated chronicle of this strangely mysterious tale, the costumes were minimal with black gowns and dresses, only the protagonist dressed in modern clothes. In all this was an entertaining but perplexing opera and was enjoyed by the audience.
Gregor Tassie