"Vissi d'Arte" In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction (And Sans The "Free Opera In The Ballpark" Fad)

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"Last year, a record of more than 2.6 million "The Met: Live in HD" tickets were sold to opera lovers across the globe - including Russia, Israel, China, Cyprus, the Dominican Republic, Morocco, and Slovenia - effectively quadrupling the Met’s paying audience (approximately 800,000 people attend performances in the opera house in a Met season)."

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"The Czech Republic has also a rich cultural heritage. Prague was a major European musical center in the 18th century, represented by classical composers such as Josef Myslivecek (1737-81), Jan Ladislav Dusek (1760-1812), friend of Mozart. 19th century Czech music was created by Bedrich Smetana, who, using folk sources and his own inspiration, almost single-handedly created a modern Czech musical style and Antonin Dvorak, whose work combined cosmopolitanism with nationalism, emerged as one of the most renowned composers of his day. Leos Janacek, whose creative period came after 1900, had a unique style based on the speech patterns of his native district of Moravia. Also in the romantic nationalist tradition were Zdenek Fibich (1850-1900) and, somewhat later, Josef Suk and Vitezslav Novak (1870-1949).

During the 1920s and 1930s many Czech composers, notably the atonalist Alois Haba (1893-1973), were attracted to avant-garde music. A more conservative figure from this period was the French-influenced cosmopolitan Bohuslav Martinu."

Image and Text credit: (c) 2002 Kuska House and Galance Web Services. With thanks.