Although we are still unable to meet live, we will be happy to meet you, our viewers, also in February at your home through the navstevnik.online visitor portal. The Košice State Theater will bring you eight theater evenings, during which you can indulge in great theater experiences in the comfort of your living room. Through the streaming of recordings, you can see drama titles and operetta from the older repertoire, as well as new performances of opera, ballet and drama created as part of the special Covid dramaturgy of the project "Svedectvo MMXX“.
Already on Monday, February 1, you can watch Sara Salkházi, the production of the play by contemporary Slovak author Kamil Žiška. The story of the blessed Sara Salkházi, who is essentially related to Košice, is a strong testimony to the time, place and time. “When I first learned I was going to play Sara Sakházi, I was stupid and not conscious. I didn't know anything about her. After all I've studied about her, I have to name her Košice's character. She was a great challenge and a great role model for me. For me, she is still an inspiring person who shows me the importance of working on myself. I think that every person will achieve a certain amount of self-reflection at some point in their life. And from one day to the next, he/she suppresses their ego and says that’s enough of it. I'm not going to look at myself, but I'm going to look at other people. She just showed us what each and every one of us has in themselves. Being able to get better and better every day. And even today, when I walk through the places where Sara was, I feel the genius loci and the chills running down my spine,” admitted actress Tatiana Poláková before the premiere in June 2018.
Operetta fans are also looking forward to it in the first week of February. On Thursday, February 4, they can enjoy the famous operetta of the King of the Viennese waltzes, Johann Strauss Jr. The Bat, about which a certain critic, writing for the Viennese newspaper Morgenpost, wrote after its world premiere in 1874: “...in the box of Theater an der Wien one can get the most beautiful seasickness, so it waves on the ground floor at the charming tones that Johann Strauss' baton extracts from the orchestra. Everything here is chirping, music, singing and trilling like in the middle of spring.” The opera of the Košice State Theater performed it in October 2018, directed by Michal Spišák and staged by Robert Jindra.
On Monday, 8 February, the best of the world's classical ballet repertoire will visit your home directly in the new performance of the Ballet of the Košice State Theater, Evening of Classical Dance, which was created as part of the "Svedectvo MMXX" project. The world ballet superstar, dancer of the century Vladimir Malakhov, together with soloists and a ballet choir, will introduce you to fragments of the gems of world ballet such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Flames of Paris, The Nutcracker, Giselle and many others.
We will offer you another production of the current Slovak play, Jurgová Hana by Hana Naglik, on Friday 12 February. One village, one family and so many passions. Jurgova Hana captures the problems of the current family, which is not able to create the warmth of a home, provide an emotional background and be a support. The poetic-harsh language with cruel humor speaks of life on the periphery, of everyday life, which is reflected in the need to survive. “When I first read the text, I was a little shocked. But the longer we worked with it, the more we realized that it couldn't be different. As soon as something was taken away from it, or something was changed, it would take away from the unreal poetry of the whole story. Although the reality in the play is named in a harsh manner, it carries unreal poetry,” said the actor Ivan Krúpa a year before the premiere, who plays the main character of Petr Jurga.
Unconventional times are accompanied by non-traditional connections and they are brought by the next project "The Testimony of MMXX", in a combination of opera, drama and ballet in the performance Manželstvo v piesňach (Marriage in Songs), which we will present on Friday, 15 February. The exceptional music of Gustav Mahler, performed by the orchestra and member of the ensemble Myroslava Havryliuk and hosted by Jiří Rajniš and Tatiana Hajzušová under the baton of Petr Valentovič, is associated with letters from his wife Alma, to which the actors Peter Čižmová and Vanda Tureková will introduce the audience in their artistic interpretation. The exceptional evening is completed by choreography performed by ballet soloists Eva Sklyarová, Maksym Sklyar and Gennra Sorbin. “I admit, I'm not a big fan of connecting theatrical categories in principle. But the form in which the people of Košice were able to do Marriage in Songs opened up new, cultivated and highly imaginative possibilities for connecting word, music and dance in a non-violent and meaningful way. A project was created that we did not have here before. And though it was broadcasted in the premiere as a stream without an audience, it has a chance to become an event of the year (even a wider period) even in live form with an audience. Just get to this stage,” wrote opera critic Pavel Unger in a review after the online premiere of the performance in December.
We will bring you another evening of dance, this time modern, at the portal navstevnik.online on Monday 18 February. You will see a selection of choreographies from the current repertoire of the Ballet of the Košice State Theater by choreographers Mauro de Candia, Onrej Šoth, as well as original choreographies from the creative workshop of our soloists, Shoko Yamada, Maksym Sklyar and Martin Bányaia.
You can indulge in a dose of laughter and unrepeatable humor on Monday, 22 February, while watching a recording of a production of a classic comedy, not only about jealousy, by the French playwright Jean BP Molièr: Škola žien (School of Women). The story of a jealous elderly man who, in an effort to raise a young wife for himself from an early age, becomes entangled in his own trap, creates a number of comic situations amplified by the texts in the verses. It is also interesting that its creators transferred the first masterful comedy of Molière to the Abov region. “I imagined what it would be like if Mr. Molière, as a traveling theater playwright, had come to Košice at the time of the play, or to Abova, and directed this play right here in this region. It was an exciting idea,” explained director Adriana Totiková before the premiere. The title characters of Arnolf and Agnes were highlighted by the excellent acting performance of Ivan Krúpa and Alena Ďuránová.
The February program of the Košice State Theater will close on Friday, 26 February, with another novelty from the Covid dramaturgy of the “The Testimony of MMXX” project - La Traviata / La Dame aux Camélias . The extraordinary performance connects two worlds - the musical in the form of the most beautiful melodies from Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata and literary in the form of excerpts from the novel by Alexander Dumas fils, La Dame aux Camélias, which was a model for the famous opera. In the famous arias, accompanied by the orchestra under the baton of Karol Kevický, domestic soloists Michael Várada and Marián Lukáč and guests Peter Berger will perform. Fragments from La Dame aux Camélias are interpreted in a great artistic manner by the actors Alena Ďuránová and Jakub Kuka. “A feeling of catharsis only through the ‘cold technique’ of recording television broadcasts does not happen often, if at all. It requires the presence of the viewer in the viewpoint, closeness, connection and capture of the intimate atmosphere, experience of the relationship and contact with the power of the emotions created. However, if it happens that the actor becomes a character literally and literally becomes (not only plays her), as was the case with Alena Ďuránová, then all the pain, joy, infinite, pure love, suffering, suffering, vivid memories, reconciliation, disgrace - it will stream through you straight to your living room, you will suddenly stop perceiving that you are watching through a TV or computer. You are so close to it all that the emotions that literally envelop the main character will engulf you as well,” wrote Zuzana Vachová after a January online premiere in a review on the mojakultura.sk portal.
THE KOŠICE STATE THEATER FEBRUARY PROGRAM AT THE NAVSTEVNIK.ONLINE PORTAL:
1.2.2021 – 20:00 - Kamil Žiška: SÁRA SALKHÁZI (Drama) - E-tickets: https://navstevnik.online/podujatie/sara-salkhazi/
4.2.2021 – 19:00 – Johann Strauss Jr. NETOPIER (opera) - E-tickets: https://navstevnik.online/podujatie/netopier-die-fledermaus/
8.2.2021 – 20:00 – CLASSIC DANCE EVENING (ballet) - E-tickets: https://navstevnik.online/podujatie/vecer-klasickeho-tanca/
12.2.2021 – 20:00 - Hana Naglik: JURGOVA HANA (drama) - E-tickets: https://navstevnik.online/podujatie/jurgova-hana/
15.2.2021 – 20:00 – Alma and Gustav Mahler: MARRIAGE IN SONGS (opera, ballet, drama) – E-tickets: https://navstevnik.online/podujatie/manzelstvo-v-piesnach/
19.2.2021 – 20:00 – MODERN DANCE EVENING (ballet) - E-tickets: https://navstevnik.online/podujatie/vecer-klasickeho-tanca/
22.2.2021 – 20:00 - Jean B. P. Molière: SCHOOL OF WOMEN (drama) - E-tickets: https://navstevnik.online/podujatie/skola-zien/
