News

The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra led by Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša has won the prestigious International Classical Music Award (ICMA) in the Opera Video category. The awards are handed out by the editors-in-chief of music magazines and representatives of cultural institutions.

The orchestra received the award for their recording of Leoš Janáček's opera Katya Kabanova from the 2022 Salzburg Festival, directed by Barrie Kosky and starring American soprano Corinne Winters in the title role.

According to the jury, the performance of Katya Kabanova, often unjustly overshadowed by Jenufa, “unfolds all the energy and beauty of it and both the orchestra and the staging are excellent – it grabs and keeps our attention throughout the work.”

ANO chief Andrej Babiš has come in for criticism after referring to Austrians as “those lunatics” for having the Greens in government in a speech in the Czech lower house. The opposition leader later said his words were aimed at the Greens, not Austrians. However, the comment was covered in the Austrian media and condemned by Czech government party politicians.

Mr. Babiš spoke for hours in the lower house on Wednesday, helping ensure that a debate on postal voting, which ANO are against, carried on into the following day.

The level of the Vltava River in Český Krumlov fell below flood alert for the first in four weeks on Wednesday. The change followed a reduced outflow from South Bohemia’s Lipno Dam.

The river level in Český Krumlov on Wednesday morning stood at 183 centimetres, 40 centimetres below a recent peak caused by rain and thawing snow, according to data from the Czech Hydro-Meteorological Institute.

The minister of the interior, Vít Rakušan, says there is nothing revolutionary about the idea of introducing postal voting for Czechs living abroad. Speaking at the start of a debate on a government bill on the matter in the lower house on Wednesday morning, he said Czechia was one of the only states in the EU not to allow for such a form of voting.

The session may for a great many hours, with the opposition ANO and Freedom and Direct Democracy parties expected to filibuster; experts say the two groupings would likely receive a lower share of the vote among Czechs in other countries.