Šárka Tickets

Prague National Theatre, Prague, Czech Republic

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Available Dates: 5 - 15 Jun, 2025 (2 events)

Important Info

Type: Opera

City: Prague, Czech Republic

Sung in: Czech

Titles in: Czech,English

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Cast

Performers

Choose the date to see the peformers

Creators

Composer: Zdeněk Fibich

Librettist: Anežka Schulzová

Director: Kay Link

Overview

The story of Zdeněk Fibich’s Šárka loosely links up to Bedřich Smetana’s festive opera Libuše. It depicts the Maidens’ War, an uprising that broke out after the death of the mythical Princess Libuše, with the women striving to regain the privileges they enjoyed during her reign.

The legend can be found in a variety of literary sources, from Cosmas of Prague’s 12th–century Chronica Boemorum to Alois Jirásek’s ever-popular Old Czech Legends, first published in 1894. During the 19th-century National Revival, Bohemian mythology inspired a number of artists, influenced in part by the fake Manuscript of Dvůr Králové and Manuscript of Zelená Hora, motifs of which even appear in the decorations of Prague’s National Theatre. Besides Libuše and Šárka, the legend of the women’s uprising reflects in Smetana’s cycle My Country (the tone poems Vyšehrad and Šárka), as well as in Otakar Ostrčil’s opera The Death of Vlasta. Fibich evidently closely worked on Šárka with the librettist Anežka Schulzová, a pupil of the prominent Czech author Jaroslav Vrchlický, with their amorous relationship having had a positive impact on their endeavours. The opera premiered on 28 December 1897 at the National Theatre in Prague, conducted by Adolf Čech. The production, directed by Adolf Krössing, featured scenery by Robert Holzer and Mikoláš Aleš, with the latter’s visual style becoming a traditional model for the costumes in the majority of the adaptations that followed. The first to portray Šárka was the outstanding 28-year-old soprano Růžena Maturová (also the first to perform Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka).

This new production will be presented more than four decades after the most recent performance of Šárka at the National Theatre. It will be conducted by Robert Jindra, music director of the National Theatre Opera, who has invited the German stage director Kay Link.

History

Premiere of this production: 28 December 1897, National Theatre, Prague

Šárka is an opera in three acts by Zdeněk Fibich to a Czech libretto by Anežka Schulzová, his student and lover. Fibich composed the full score over the period of 8 September 1896 to 10 March 1897. The subject matter, the Bohemian legend of Šárka, which appears in 14th-century Czech literature, is related to that of Smetana's tone poem Má vlast and the opera of the same name by Janáček. Schulzová used as her primary literary source an 1880 version of the story by J. Vrchlický.

Venue Info

Prague National Theatre - Prague
Národní 2

The National Theatre is the prime stage of the Czech Republic. It is also one of the symbols of national identity and a part of the European cultural space, with a tradition spanning more than 130 years. It is the bearer of the national cultural heritage, as well as a space for free artistic creation.

The National Theatre (Czech: Národní divadlo) in Prague is known as the alma mater of Czech opera, and as the national monument of Czech history and art.

The National Theatre belongs to the most important Czech cultural institutions, with a rich artistic tradition, which helped to preserve and develop the most important features of the nation–the Czech language and a sense for a Czech musical and dramatic way of thinking.

Today, the National Theatre is made up of four artistic companies – the Opera, Drama, Ballet and Laterna magika. It artistically manages four stages – the three historical buildings: the National Theatre (1883), the State Opera (1888), and the Estates Theatre (1783), and the more recently opened New Stage (1983). The Opera, Drama and Ballet companies perform not only titles from the ample classical legacy, in addition to Czech works, they also focus on contemporary international creation.

Grand opening

The National Theatre was opened for the first time on 11 June 1881, to honour the visit of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria. Bedřich Smetana's opera Libuše was given its world premiere, conducted by Adolf Čech. Another 11 performances were presented after that. Then the theatre was closed down to enable the completion of the finishing touches. While this work was under way a fire broke out on 12 August 1881, which destroyed the copper dome, the auditorium, and the stage of the theatre.

The fire was seen as a national catastrophe and was met with a mighty wave of determination to take up a new collection: Within 47 days a million guldens were collected. This national enthusiasm, however, did not correspond to the behind-the-scenes battles that flared up following the catastrophe. Architect Josef Zítek was no longer in the running, and his pupil architect Josef Schulz was summoned to work on the reconstruction. He was the one to assert the expansion of the edifice to include the block of flats belonging to Dr. Polák that was situated behind the building of the Provisional Theatre. He made this building a part of the National Theatre and simultaneously changed somewhat the area of the auditorium to improve visibility. He did, however, take into account with utmost sensitivity the style of Zítek's design, and so he managed to merge three buildings by various architects to form an absolute unity of style.