Soňa Červená exhibition at Prague museum marks 100th birthday of legendary opera singer
A new exhibition at the Museum of Music in Prague pays tribute to one of the most significant figures of Czech and world music, opera singer Soňa Červená, on the occasion of what would have been her 100th birthday.
The exhibition, titled simply Soňa Červená 100, traces the life of the celebrated Czech opera singer and actress, who dazzled audiences in more than 5,500 performances across 75 seasons. It follows her path from youth through the difficult years of communist persecution and emigration to her greatest successes on the world’s stages, as well as her later creative experiments.
On display are more than 200 items, including personal belongings, archival photographs, audio and video recordings, and unique documents from her professional and private life. Among the highlights are some of her stunning stage costumes, says curator Miroslava Burianová:
“The exhibition presents both stage costumes in which Soňa Červená performed on stage and her private outfits, in which she accepted awards or recited melodramas.”
Červená was born in 1925 into a musical family. Her father co-founded a famous Prague cabaret, and her grandfather was a renowned maker of brass instruments. Her talent showed early, recalls Burianová:
“When she was 12 years old, Soňa wrote this little booklet, a kind of satirical comedy for her classmates, which she published with the help of her father. They even performed it at the French lycée, so it was clear even then that she was heading in another direction, that she loved the Czech language, that she wanted to express herself, that art was close to her.”
Her first artistic experiences came in Prague’s Liberated Theatre with Jiří Voskovec and Jan Werich, before she turned fully to opera. She sang in Brno and at the National Theatre in Prague until political repression forced her to leave. In 1962, while performing in East Berlin, she escaped through the last open crossing in the Berlin Wall and built a new career in the West.
Červená went on to perform in Frankfurt, Vienna, Milan, Paris, San Francisco and beyond, singing more than 110 roles. One role, above all, became her hallmark: Bizet’s Carmen, which she performed on the world’s leading stages, says opera singer and curator Olga Vít Krumpholcová:
“I would probably mention Carmen among her most important and central roles. It was one of her favourite roles, I would say her life role.”
After retiring from opera, Červená continued to perform as an actress. Following the fall of the Iron Curtain, she returned to her homeland and appeared again at the National Theatre in Prague. Even in her later years, she impressed those around her with her energy, says musicologist Dagmar Štefancová:
“I am also of an older age, and she fascinated me with how flexible she was. She was always interested in what was happening, what was new. She had a very young spirit, and I hope that somehow comes across in the exhibition.”
The exhibition Soňa Červená at the Czech Museum of Music is open until April 9 of next year.
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