Czech Republic Pavel Haas, Šarlatán (The Charlatan): Soloists, Chorus, Ballet and Orchestra of the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre/ Jiří Habart (conductor). Antonin Dvořák Theatre, Ostrava, 24.1.2025. (GT)

Pavel Haas (1899-1944) was among a generation of Czech composers who were murdered in the Second World War. Haas’s friends and colleagues – Gideon Klein, Viktor Ullmann, and Hans Krása were all gassed at Auschwitz – only three months before the Red Army liberated the camp in January 1945. Born in Brno and showing prodigious talent, Haas studied at the conservatoire with Jan Kunc and Vilém Petrželka in composition. He later joined the composition class of Janáček and wrote many chamber music songs and music for theatre and the cinema. His brother Hugo was a distinguished actor and helped Haas find work in the then-booming Czech film industry; the experience helped him develop his style of composition. His collaboration with Karel Capek’s Rossum’s Universal Robots were a notable feature of his attraction to novel styles of composition. Attracted to neo-modernism among many diverse artistic trends in the 1920s, he was prolific across different genres and evolved his style and reached maturity in the mid-thirties with his Second and Third String Quartets, the Suite for Oboe. Arguably, his most mature work, and only opera, The Charlatan, was premiered on April 2, 1938, in Brno, receiving seven performances.
The Nazis Race Laws when enforced in Czechoslovakia led to Haas having to divorce his wife to protect both her and his daughter from the threat of being sent to the camps. In 1941, after being deported to Terezin, he suffered from poor health – his friend Gideon Klein helped him return to composing, and his Four Songs on Chinese Poems and the Study for Strings are among his finest works.
In October 1944, together with his fellow composers, Krása, Klein, Ullmann and the conductor Karel Ancerl, he was despatched to Auschwitz, and only Ancerl survived. He ensured Haas’s music was heard in post-war Czechoslovakia; his unfinished symphony was completed and performed, yet The Charlatan remained unheard for many decades. The first staging outside the country was at the Wexford Festival in 1998. There was a production in Gera, Thuringia, in 2009, and in Glasgow, the Royal Conservatoire held a seminar in which a performing edition in English was produced. A concert performance in Prague in 1997 led to the only recording under Israel Yinon for DECCA’s series devoted to the so-called degenerate music. The Ostrava production is the first in the Czech Republic in almost ninety years – Ondřej Havelka’s staging premiered on October 10, 2024, and it was performed at the 2024 Janáček Festival in Brno to enthusiastic reviews.
Following his experimentation with different modernist influences, Haas already acquired his language of expression using elements of Moravian folk and jazz music: the opening orchestral theme embodies a blend of upbeat, cheerful moods with hints of a lingering tragedy. His orchestral canvass employs brass chorales, shortened phrasing, and clipped notes and using a large orchestra with a full brass section, percussion and strings. Haas moves the action quickly without indulging in lengthy phrasing and ensuring the momentum of the narrative is maintained. By the time that he started the opera, Haas had developed experience in dealing with theatre and cinema genres and adapting his musical ideas to the quickly moving events required on stage and film. Haas has a kinship with his teacher Janáček in evincing the emotional and heart-rending scenes in opera albeit he does this in what is ostensibly a comedy with the underlying societal issues of betrayal, deception, hypocrisy and crime. That he chose this subject of a peddling charlatan doctor exploiting both rich and poor has parallels with the characters we see in everyday life – most evident perhaps in our politicians, property developers or bank managers. Haas wrote his own libretto for the opera in three acts and seven scenes basing his narrative on Joseph Winckler’s Doctor Eisenbart, a real-life character who operated as a travelling quack doctor in the seventeenth century.

The narrative opens colourfully in a town square where the travelling troupe of Doctor Pustrpalk (the Charlatan) perform before the public in a circus show with jugglers, gymnasts playing gags all wonderfully done against quickly moving scenes and actions. Pustrpalk’s accomplices tell of the doctor’s curing sick people; one of his stooges shows how he had lost a tumour, and another of overcoming their cataract problem. Entering against a bizarre fanfare, Pustrpalk performs some implausible deeds curing people – but they are all in Charlatan’s entourage. The beautiful Amaranta arrives on a couch unable to move owing to a difficult childbirth, when she is behind a screen Pustrpalk asks her to sit on a box of nettles after which she makes a complete recovery, and she becomes his lover!
There are striking images as his troupe moves to another venue with projected images allowing the effect of moving through the countryside. The comical scene of Amaranta in her crinoline dress trying to enter the box carriage leads to an argument as to the cheap material stopping her from getting into the coach. When her dress is raised, and he tries to touch her, his wife Rosina sees the scene and scandalises him before everyone pelting him with fruit. Haas is a master in showing the falseness in peoples’ nature, loyalties and characters’ relationships with different people.
Act II opens in the Royal Palace square in a carnival scene with the royals watching from the right and the people on the left while Amaranta enters, now dressed as a mermaid. The King is disguised, and he complains of being unwell, and the Doctor gives him a potion, and as a sign of restoring to full health, he immediately comically attempts to ravage Amaranta. Now convinced, the King claims that Pustrpalk is a genius, and everyone praises him. However, in the confusion, Amaranta is kidnapped.
In Act III, Pustrpalk mourns the loss of Amaranta – now his friend tells of a monk who needs curing – but the monk is Amaranta’s husband Jochimus, who confesses his true identity, and in revenge Pustrpalk kills Jochimus. Now, the people wearing masks declare him a murderer, and together with his entourage, Pustrpalk escapes, everyone calling him a charlatan. The final scene is in a tavern years later when Pustrpalk recollects his miraculous healing methods – and in self-parody – sings along with his friends; yet suddenly, Pustrpalk sees the ghost of Jochimus, and he falls dead.
Of the singers, the Amaranta of Kateřina Hebelková was superbly characterised from her first scene; she revealed her rich soprano tessitura in her opening aria. The Charlatan of Miloš Horák throughout exhibited a magnificent baritone, rich in tone and colour. His acting was characterful and he dominated every scene; sometimes playing the part of beau, or in other scenes, towards the end, of a sad Don Quixote figure in his comical never-ending attempts to deceive both poor and wealthy citizens. His poor wife, Rosina played by Ivana Ambrúsová was excellent in playing the betrayed and long-suffering spouse, and showed she has a fine soprano with a wide range of expression. Marek Gurbaľ’s characterisation of Jochimus was excellent and despite little to do showed a fine bass voice, albeit underemployed. Of all the secondary parts, the rib-tickling performances by Pustrpalk’s entourage embroidered the entire show. There are parallels in much of the dramaturgy with the slapstick of Marx Brothers film comedies, while the frequent lewd scenes have its equivalents with Gilbert and Sullivan farces.
Overall, Ondřej Havelka’s production is masterful in bringing out all the bizarre aspects of Pavel Haas’s stagework and bringing it to life after almost ninety years of neglect. He assured all the diverse elements of Haas’s narrative come alive in a rollicking comic satire on life in the seventeenth century to be relevant to opera in the present day. The fast-moving drama with the colourful costumes and scenery was a tremendous achievement for the entire company. The orchestra led by Jiří Habart were on top form throughout the evening with fine solos from the woodwind bringing out the humour of the score, while the brass gave colour to the many comical and often tragic moments.
The costumes by Kateřina Štefková were a major element in the success of the show ranging from the bizarre tiger outfit for one of the doctor’s supporters, the clown’s costume for another singer, and the great crinoline dress for Amaranta was a witty source for fun too. Enhanced by the multi-coloured attire, the scenery by Jakub Kopecký gave almost fairytale visuals in several scenes creating an unworldly fantasy picture. The descent of a screen and the vision of the laughing faces was another asset to the production, contrasted by the complete silence as the faces of those who have been deceived by Pustrpalk look out sadly towards the audience. The chorus were excellent in the big scenes and made a very impressive contribution while the dancers and secondary characters were all magnificent.
This production of Pavel Haas’s masterpiece marks a remarkable triumph for the Ostrava opera in its series of operas devoted to the Terezin composers. One hopes that it will become available on video as it is difficult to see this show being better performed in the years to come.
Gregor Tassie
Production:
Direction – Ondřej Havelka
Set designer – Jakub Kopecký
Costume designer – Kateřina Štefková
Choreography – Jana Hanušová
Chorus master – Jurij Galatenko
Dramaturg – Juraj Bajús
Cast:
Doctor Pustrpalk – Miloš Horák
Rosina – Ivana Ambrúsová
Bachelor – Josef Moravec
Sour milk – Peter Malý
Cobweb – Josef Škarka
Pickled herring – Martin Javorský
Fire-eater – Rudolf Medňanský
Strongman – Erik Ondruš
Snake charmer – Petr Urbánek
First servant / First student – Jiří Sluda
Second servant / Jochimus’s servant – Ihor Maryshkin
Second student – Eduard Kácal
Third student – Tomasz Suchanek
Amaranta – Kateřina Hebelková
Jochimus – Marek Gurbaľ
Innkeeper / Shabby – Marek Žihla
King – Pavel Divin
Gymnasts – Adam Holub, Ondřej Matuszynski
Dancers – Adina Mlčáková, Julie Svitičová, Petr Hýl, Stephen McIntosh