Honzovo království / Jack´s Kingdom - 2 CD

This two-CD set presents Otakar Ostrčil’s opera Jack’s Kingdom, a fairy-tale opera in three acts composed in 1933 to a libretto by Jiří Mařánek based on a story by Leo Tolstoy, together with his The Way of the Cross, variations for large orchestra, Op. 24. The complete opera is released on CD for the first time. It tells of a kingdom ruled by the kind-hearted Jack, who knows no hatred: soldiers do not fight but dance and love, the sick recover, and the people are happy. Jack brings everyone a miraculous star of compassion and love, which also heals an incurably ill princess, and triumphs over the devil himself. The opera’s deliberate anti-war message made its premieres in Brno in 1934 and Prague almost a sensation, while its story of Jack opposing the devil’s quest for world domination reached the stage soon after Hitler’s rise to power. The cast includes Přemysl Kočí, Jaroslava Vymazalová, Jaroslav Veverka, Josef Celerin, Antonín Votava, Zdeněk Otava, Milada Jirásková and Ludmila Hanzalíková, with the Czechoslovak Radio Choir and Czechoslovak Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Václav Jiráček. The unique 1954 studio recording was made by Czechoslovak Radio, while The Way of the Cross is heard in a 1957 recording by the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Václav Neumann.