Daniel Hůlka
Daniel Hůlka (born 1 June 1968) is a Czech actor and baritone who is known for his performances in musical theatre, film, and opera. He has won both the Český slavík and the Anděl Award multiple times and has released several recordings on EMI. Life and career Music and film Born in Prague, Hůlka took the flute, clarinet, and piano in grade school and played volleyball in high school, while also singing and playing guitar in a band with friends. He went on to study at the Prague Conservatory and then briefly at the Academy of Performing Arts in the class of Magdalena Hajossyova, before embarking on an opera career in the early 1990s. He first drew wide acclaim portraying the title role in Karel Svoboda's 1995 musical ''Dracula''. He has since appeared in numerous musical productions in Prague, portraying such roles as Javert in Claude-Michel Schönberg's ''Les Misérables'' and the title role in Frank Wildhorn's '' Jekyll & Hyde'', among others. As an opera singer, Hůl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its Prague metropolitan area, metropolitan area is home to approximately 2.3 million people. Prague is a historical city with Romanesque architecture, Romanesque, Czech Gothic architecture, Gothic, Czech Renaissance architecture, Renaissance and Czech Baroque architecture, Baroque architecture. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia and residence of several Holy Roman Emperors, most notably Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV (r. 1346–1378) and Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II (r. 1575–1611). It was an important city to the Habsburg monarchy and Austria-Hungary. The city played major roles in the Bohemian Reformation, Bohemian and the Protestant Reformations, the Thirty Years' War and in 20th-century history a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Zdeněk Troška
Zdeněk Troška (born 18 May 1953) is a Czech film director and screenwriter. He mainly directs comedies and fairy-tale films. Personal life Troška is deeply connected with the South Bohemian Region. He was born in the hospital in Strakonice, but he grew up in Hoštice (Strakonice District), Hoštice, where he still lives and where he filmed several of his films (mostly notably the ''Slunce, seno...'' trilogy). He studied directing at Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and also at Lycée Carnot in Dijon, France. Troška came out as gay. Work Troška ranks among contradictory and sometimes controversial directors. Although he is educated and receives offers to direct classical operas and film dramas like ''Andělská tvář'' (2002), he is most famous for cheap comedies and fairy tales intended for an undemanding audience. His films are usually highly criticized by film critics, but they are successful and profitable in cinemas. Troška made several fa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Helluva Good Luck
Helluva Good Luck () is a 1999 Czech fantasy film directed by Zdeněk Troška. It is inspired by Jan Drda's story "Brave Honza". A sequel was released in 2001. Plot The film is about a youngster Jan, who falls in love with Markéta. She serves at Castle. Jan is forced to a journey. He retrieves a napkin, allowing him to be invisible, and defeats a dragon. Cast * Miroslav Šimůnek as Jan * Michaela Kuklová as Markéta * Daniel Hůlka as Brambas * Vladimír Brabec as King * Sabina Laurinová as Princess Eufrozína * Lukáš Vaculík Lukáš Vaculík (born 8 June 1962) is a Czech actor. Selected filmography Film * ''Love Between the Raindrops'' (1979) * ''King Thrushbeard'' (1984) * '' Tankový prapor'' (1991) * '' Helluva Good Luck'' (1999) * '' Helluva Good Luck 2'' (20 ... as Kujbaba References External links * 1990s fantasy adventure films Films about dragons Czech fantasy adventure films Films based on fairy tales 1990s Czech-language films Films dir ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Marriage Of Figaro
''The Marriage of Figaro'' (, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 1 May 1786. The opera's libretto is based on the 1784 stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, '' La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro'' ("The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro"). It tells how the servants Figaro and Susanna succeed in getting married, foiling the efforts of their philandering employer Count Almaviva to seduce Susanna and teaching him a lesson in fidelity. Considered one of the greatest operas ever written, it is a cornerstone of the repertoire and appears consistently among the top ten in the Operabase list of most frequently performed operas. In 2017, BBC News Magazine asked 172 opera singers to vote for the best operas ever written. ''The Marriage of Figaro'' came in first out of the 20 operas featured, with t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legend about a libertine as told by playwright Tirso de Molina in his 1630 play '' El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra''. It is a ''dramma giocoso'' blending comedy, melodrama and supernatural elements (although the composer entered it into his catalogue simply as ''opera buffa''). It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the National Theatre (of Bohemia), now called the Estates Theatre, on 29 October 1787. ''Don Giovanni'' is regarded as one of the greatest operas of all time and has proved a fruitful subject for commentary in its own right; critic Fiona Maddocks has described it as one of Mozart's "trio of masterpieces with librettos by Da Ponte". Composition and premiere The opera was commissioned after the success of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age resulted in List of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, more than 800 works representing virtually every Western classical genre of his time. Many of these compositions are acknowledged as pinnacles of the symphony, symphonic, concerto, concertante, chamber music, chamber, operatic, and choir, choral repertoires. Mozart is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Classical music, Western music, with his music admired for its "melodic beauty, its formal elegance and its richness of harmony and texture". Born in Salzburg, Mozart showed Child prodigy, prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. At age five, he was already competent on keyboard and violin, had begun to compose, and performed before European r ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pagliacci
''Pagliacci'' (; literal translation, 'Clowns') is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The opera tells the tale of Canio, actor and leader of a commedia dell'arte theatrical company, who murders his wife Nedda and her lover Silvio on stage during a performance. ''Pagliacci'' premiered at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on 21 May 1892, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, with Adelina Stehle as Nedda, Fiorello Giraud as Canio, Victor Maurel as Tonio, and Mario Ancona as Silvio. Soon after its Italian premiere, the opera played in London (with Nellie Melba as Nedda) and in New York (on 15 June 1893, with Agostino Montegriffo as Canio). ''Pagliacci'' is the best-known of Leoncavallo's ten operas and remains a staple of the repertoire. ''Pagliacci'' is often staged with ''Cavalleria rusticana'' by Pietro Mascagni, a double bill known colloquially as "Cav/Pag". Origin and disputes Leoncavallo was a little-known composer when Pietro Masc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero (or Ruggiero) Leoncavallo (23 April 18579 August 1919) was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Throughout his career, Leoncavallo produced numerous operas and songs but it is his 1892 opera ''Pagliacci'' that remained his lasting contribution, despite attempts to escape the shadow of his greatest success. Today ''Pagliacci'' continues to be his most famous opera and one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the operatic repertory. His other notable compositions include the song " Mattinata", popularized by Enrico Caruso, and, to a lesser extent, his version of ''La bohème'' which, however, was overshadowed by Puccini's highly successful opera of the same name. Biography The son of Vincenzo Leoncavallo, a police magistrate and judge, Leoncavallo was born in Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, on 23 April 1857. As a child, Leoncavallo moved with his father to the town of Montalto Uffugo in Calabria, where he lived during his adolescence. In 1868 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Secret (opera)
''The Secret'' () is a comic opera in three acts by Bedřich Smetana. The libretto was written by Eliška Krásnohorská. The premiere took place on 18 September 1878 at the Nové České Divadlo (New Czech Theatre) in Prague. Background Krásnohorská proposed the idea for a new opera to Smetana two weeks after the opening of ''The Kiss'', but kept details of the plot a secret from the composer until July 1877, when a draft outline, drawing on several sources, including ''Les femmes et le secret'' by La Fontaine, was sent to him.Large B. Smetana's 'The Secret'. ''Musical Times'', May 1972, 452-4. The librettist had set the action in the town of Bělá pod Bezdězem, visible from Smetana's home in the country. Fighting his increasing deafness and resultant depression, Smetana made a few small changes to Krásnohorská's original draft and delivered a full score to the New Czech Theatre on 4 August 1877, for the premiere in September. The through composition evident in ''The Branden ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bedřich Smetana
Bedřich Smetana ( ; ; 2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his people's aspirations to a cultural and political "revival". He has been regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. Internationally he is best known for his 1866 opera '' The Bartered Bride'' and for the symphonic cycle '' Má vlast'' ("My Fatherland"), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native Bohemia. It contains the famous symphonic poem "Vltava", also popularly known by its German name "Die Moldau" (in English, "The Moldau"). Smetana was naturally gifted as a composer, and gave his first public performance at the age of six. After conventional schooling, he studied music under Josef Proksch in Prague. His first nationalistic music was written during the 1848 Prague uprising, in which he briefly participated. After failing to establish his career in Prague, he left fo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875, where its breaking of conventions shocked and scandalised its first audiences. Bizet died suddenly after the 33rd performance, unaware that the work would achieve international acclaim within the following ten years. ''Carmen'' has since become one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the classical canon; the " Habanera" and "Seguidilla" from act 1 and the " Toreador Song" from act 2 are among the best known of all operatic arias. The opera is written in the genre of ''opéra comique'' with musical numbers separated by dialogue. It is set in southern Spain and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsy Carmen. Jos� ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |