Czech arias for soprano: an anthology

In the United States, Italian, French, German, and English language operas are most often performed, both professionally and in collegiate settings. However, operas by Czech composers such as Leoš Janáček, Bedřich Smetana, and Antonín Dvořák have been performed in major American opera houses over the course of the last decade. The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago, the three largest companies in the country, have mounted Czech productions in previous seasons. Regional companies have delved into this new territory with positive outcomes, such as when the Opera Theatre of St. Louis staged Smetana’s The Kiss (Hubička) in 2013. The Juilliard Opera Center, Seattle Opera, Dallas Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Arizona Opera, and many others have recently produced Czech operas, as well. With this surge in performances of Czech opera, American companies are showing that Czech opera is as worthy of performing alongside those in Italian, German, French, and English.

Czech opera receives little attention in collegiate voice programs, whether it be the study of the repertoire, the language, or its historical context. Since emphasis is largely placed on English, French, German, and Italian opera, many voice teachers and vocal coaches may not have expertise in either the repertoire or the language, and as a result, few selections are performed by young singers. It is important to observe the trends of the professional houses in this country so that young singers may be more well-rounded and able to successfully market themselves. By exposing them to the language and style of Czech operatic music, they are gaining experiences that will help them in their professional careers.

This dissertation serves as a resource for singers, voice teachers, vocal coaches, and collaborative artists who wish to immerse themselves in Czech operatic repertoire for the soprano. The twenty arias in this anthology by seven composers from seventeen operas represent just a cross-section of the hundreds of operas from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Czech opera emerged as a form of nationalist expression, and a contextualized understanding of its history will help the singer to fully immerse herself in the operas’ rich stories and wonderful music. Additional elements include brief biographical information about selected composers; synopses of the operas; a guide to explaining the basics of Czech diction (as well as its similarities and differences with English, German, French, Italian, and Russian), International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions of each aria, as well as literal and poetic translations of the text.