Smetana's Litomysl Opera Festival - good music in a beautiful place

The famous Czech composer Bedrich Smetana was born in the East-Bohemian town of Litomysl. To commemorate the composers' great heritage, every year the city organizes an opera festival that over 47 years has gained great popularity in the Czech Republic. This year the festival takes place between June 17th and July 4th. And of course, visitors from abroad are widely welcome.

Festival spokesperson Kamila Viskova:

"I would like to invite our international visitors to the 47th year of Smetana's Opera Festival. I think we prepared a really interesting program. We will start Friday 17th June at the Litomysl castle with the ceremonial opening concert. The visitors can hear for example the symphonic cycle 'My Country' by Bedrich Smetana with Anely Pebo and the Czech National Symphonic Orchestra with the famous conductor Libor Pesek."

"We have prepared a nice performance we call 'Reconciliation': it's the Requiem by Andrew Lloyd Weber and 'Oratorio of Reconciliation by Jiri Pavlica'. Apart from that there will be for example a profile concert of the Czech boys' choir 'Boni Pueri' and a stage version of the children's opera 'Brundibar' by Hans Krasa with piano accompaniment."

The children's opera Brundibar is a unique piece composed by Hans Krasa during the Second World War in the concentration camp of Terezin. But there will definitely also be plenty of other good music to hear at the festival.

The town of Litomysl itself is well worth visiting. It is a small town with beautiful renaissance houses lining the old town square, and a castle on the UNESCO World Heritage List, where many of the concerts take place. And as Kamila Viskova says, it is not so difficult to reach from Prague.

"I think it is quite easy to get to Litomysl. You can get there from Prague by car within two hours or you can arrange accommodation in the region. If there are visitors coming to our festival, I would like to recommend coming to our ticket office and we can arrange some accommodation for them. We wish everybody to feel well in Litomysl, to enjoy our festival and to come again."

If you want to get more information about the town and the festival, go to www.litomysl.cz.