The first premiere of the opera povera ensemble.
First staged performance of the piece in the Czech Republic on 21. 9. 2014 within the Year of Czech Music 2014, Chamber Hall of the Music Faculty of the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno.
Performed within the Festival Opera Schrattenbach in Olomouc (1. 12. 2014).
Performed within the Festival Opera 2015 in Prague (23. 1. 2015).
The composer found the story for this psychological monodrama-opera Martin Středa through his father Josef Svoboda (*1929), who was imprisoned in the communist camp at Jáchymov in the years 1949-1958.
About the company
The opera povera ensemble was founded in 2013 in the Czech Republic by the opera stage director and artistic director of the ensemble Rocc (Slovenia), the dramaturge Pavel Petráněk (CZ) and the executive manager of the ensemble Tomáš Cafourek (CZ). Yet the ideological history of the ensemble dates back to 2005, when Rocc, during his stay in Zurich, inspired by Grotowski’s theory of “poor theatre” and the artistic style of “arte povera”, laid the basic thesis of “opera povera” (in Italian, literally “poor opera” or “poor work”)