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Prize for Opera 2017
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Rules for Good Manners in the Modern World
Rules for Good Manners in the Modern World - National Theatre Brno © i
Presentation
A chamber opera inspired by the play of the same name by J. L. Lagarce The subject for the new work is the monodrama Rules for Good Manners in the Modern World (Les Règles du savoir-vivre dans la société moderne, 1994) by Jean-Luc Lagarce (1957-1995), a French playwright, actor and director who currently belongs among the most played French authors at home and abroad. The monodrama performed by a young actor is dated at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. In an ironically rich way, the audience is introduced into often absurd rules for good manners, mapping the life of man from birth to death. At the same time, it is a sarcastic reflection of higher society from the turn of the century. In an ironically rich way, the audience is introduced into often absurd rules for good manners, mapping the life of man from birth to death. Despite the fact that the play is designed as a monodrama, its operatic version is divided among more characters, playing and sharing the absurd situations based on the fact that human life is bound by rules for "good manners", playing and sharing the absurd situations based on the fact that human life is bound by rules for "good manners". The choir of 4 singers represents age long guardians of tradition and good manners. The preliminary stage idea includes a "Buñuel-style", absurd festive dinner party, gradually prepared and changed. The party is being prepared by the chief butler, i.e. the actor, using unrealistic and nonsense objects. Before everybody manages to sit down, it is not a christening party, nor engagement party or wedding party, but a funeral party. Also the image of higher society, as timeless, "bourgeois" aristocracy, has been inspired by Buñuel's films. Despite the outer noblesse and elegance, the acting and singing is sometimes rather distorted.
Artistic Team
Composer: Michal Nejtek Stage Director & Librettist: Jiri Adamek The team of authors consist from two renowned young generation artists, composer Michal Nejtek, whose works was well received on many international festivals (Wien Modern, Music Gallery Toronto etc.), and the stage director and librettist Jiří Adámek have already participated in many original projects appreciated by professional public. Jiří Adámek is one of the leading figures of alternative theatre in Czech Republic. He has developed an original type of musical, or rather sonic, theatre, mixing musiccomposed structures, stylized acting and a special approach to language (fragmentarization and rhythmization of words, playing with half abstract clusters of syllables and sounds). The set designer Ivana Kanhäuserová is young artist cooperating with alternative theatres. The team will join conductor Pavel Šnajdr, who specialize in contemporary music and is the artistic director of Brno Contemporary Orchestra, and four young singers, mostly members of our opera ensemble.
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