The protagonist Violetta Valéry, although she is a well-traveled courtesan and the center of attention, in fact remains a tragic outsider. Although society seeks her for fun and for her beauty, at the same time she is perceived as a moral threat that cannot be accepted among “decent” people.
Her personal tragedy culminates in a conflict with her lover Alfredo’s father, Giorgio Germont, who embodies cold bourgeois hypocrisy. He asks her to give up her only true love in the name of saving the family reputation. Violetta, though scorned by society, shows more nobility and capacity for sacrifice than those who judge her. Her death in seclusion and disease is the result not only of tuberculosis but also of emotional destruction by a world that prefers outward decorum over human feeling.
Giuseppe Verdi was looking for just such a provocative story when he came across the novel La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas the Younger. In the spring of 1852, he saw the play The Lady with the Camellias in an adaptation by the author himself at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris. The impression she made on him strengthened his decision to use the story for his next opera; the story gave him the opportunity to formulate his great theme: love defeated by a hypocritical society.
Firebird
- Theatre: JANART Theatre
- Premiere: May 28
In the renewed Slovak premiere, the world hit returns to Slovakia in the Ján Durovčík Theatre. The modern ballet The Firebird, which became a cult work, which launched the career of Ján Ďurovčík, a work that was seen by audiences all over the world, and which was even performed by the prestigious Tokyo Metropolitan City Balletperformed at the National Theater in Tokyo. A work that caused a literal revolution on the dance scene at the time of its creation.
We could also watch a unique preview of the new version of this ballet on TV Markíza, during the live broadcast of the 8th round of the dance show Let’s Dance. Ján Ďurovčík’s production to the music of Igor Stravinsky is conceptually “returning” to the home stage only in a very limited number of four performances, the first of which is scheduled for May 28.
The international cast of the Slovak Dance Theater will be presented on stage – performers with a pure technical level and professional experience from domestic and foreign productions.
Badass Peter Pan
- Theatre: Andrej Bagar Theater in Nitra
- Premiere: May 28
Peter Pan gone awry is a brilliant comedy for young and old audiences, about what can happen if the legendary title Peter Pan is presented by the lesser-known Theater Ensemble of the Technical University, which does not always go as planned.
Bad Peter Pan is a perfectly polished comedy that combines elements of clowning, grotesque and commedia dell’arte and works on two levels – as a magical story about Peter Pan and at the same time as a crazy adventure of actors who play a show for the audience and their relationships and destinies literally shine through all the mistakes and mishaps on stage.
Technical failures, fallen sets, chaos on the stage and behind the scenes, actors flying off the stage, ridiculous disputes and misunderstandings are guaranteed to make every viewer laugh. The journey to the Country-Non-Country turns into a nightmare in the funnest sense of the word. However, the actors of the Theater Ensemble of the Technical University are by no means bad or untalented, they are just victims of unfavorable circumstances.
At the swamp of cats
- Theatre: Slovak National Theatre
- Premiere: May 31
In May, the Slovak National Theater will present a new play Pri močiari mačiek, where, perhaps surprisingly, despite all the circumstances, the popular Slovak actress Táňa Pauhofová will appear in the main role. In addition to her, names such as Diana Mórová, Emília Vášaryová, Jana Oľhová, Jozef Vajda and Frantíšek Kovár will appear on stage.
In the story, one day forty-year-old Hester Swan meets a ghost who escorts the dead to the other world. The ghost is a bit confused – mistaking dawn for dusk and arriving early. As it turns out, the person he has to escort to the other world in a few hours is Hester. Irish playwright Marina Carr rewrote the ancient story of Medea into the environment of the contemporary Irish countryside. Hester is fighting for a younger man who left her for a much younger and wealthier bride. He is fighting for his old life, for his house, for his seven-year-old daughter Josie; he is fighting like all of us against his tragic fate.
In this play, the author Marina Carr revealed the basic human drives and passions – love, hate, the feeling of betrayal and the desire for revenge. She set the story of the ancient royal family in the environment of Irish peasants and the nouveau riche, an environment that is also familiar to us. Thanks to this, she moved ancient tragedy closer to tragicomedy. The world, in which the harsh reality of the countryside is mixed with rumors and legends, has been populated by mysterious and poetic characters of ghosts and curmudgeonly cat women, characters of rough and cruel peasants and comic characters from the local community, among whom the old priest plays a leading role.
