A small Moravian town comes alive to the sound of music

A quiet provincial town in the rolling hills of Southern Moravia is not a place where you would expect to hear the resounding tones of the operatic greats, but you have to remember that this is a musical nation. David Vaughan reports.

Every year since 1999 the little town of Jaromerice, which is close to the Czech-Austrian border, has hosted an international music festival, under the patronage of none other than the world-famous Slovak tenor Peter Dvorsky. It opened last Saturday, with a concert of "Three Tenors" - no, this wasn't Luciano Pavarotti or Placido Domingo, but Dvorsky was joined by the Armenian Gegham Grigorian and the rising Czech star from nearby Brno, Richard Samek.

On Saturday there will be a performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's Mozart and Salieri, followed by Mozart's Requiem, and this will all be accompanied by a laser show with smoke, fireworks and much more besides - all in the Jaromerice Castle garden. As well as opera the festival is also featuring choral music - including the famous Don Cossack Ensemble, as well as operetta and a series of opera masterclasses. These are being led by Peter Dvorsky, working with students. He has done a lot of work over the years to support the younger generation of singers, and I talked to one of the participants in the masterclass, Jan Martinik, who studies at the conservatoire in the city of Ostrava. He is back at the festival for the fourth year running, so I asked him what makes him keep coming back.

"There are many reasons why I came back. There are plenty of concerts during the festival, there is beautiful countryside around, but I think the main reason why I have come back is the masterclass with the maestro, Peter Dvorsky."

Peter Dvorsky is a very well known Slovak opera singer. What is it like to be work with such a master?

"It's a really big experience for me, every time I can work with him, because he has a lot of knowledge, a lot of experience, and he is a very rare person in terms of passing his experience to young singers. That's why I come back and why I like to be in his class."

And I gather that the masterclasses are international.

"This year there are sixteen participants and there are people from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, of course, also Latvia or Lithuania, in recent years there have also been people from Austria and even from Australia. So the masterclasses are really international."

There seems to be a lot of public interest in this opera festival. In your opinion are many people interested in opera in the Czech Republic - both as an audience and also in becoming opera singers, like yourself?

"I think it's getting better here in the Czech Republic. The situation is better in Germany or Austria, but I think that when people make the time and go to see an opera or a symphony I think they can easily find a very good production and be satisfied with it."