140th anniversary of Antonín Dvořák's The Spectre's Bride

The Czech Society has declared 2024 the Year of Czech Music, which marks a number of important anniversaries of our leading composers and performers, in particular the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bedřich Smetana and the 120th anniversary of the death of Antonín Dvořák.

This gala concert is a celebration not only of the Year of Czech Music and the aforementioned Antonín Dvořák, but especially of his phenomenal work, Svatební košile (The Spectre’s Bride), which this year celebrates 140 years since it was written.

The work itself is one of the highlights of Dvořák’s oeuvre. It is a cantata for orchestra, mixed choir and soloists on the text of a ballad by Karel Jaromír Erben from the collection Kytice z pověstí národních (A Bouquet of Folk Legends), also known by the short title Kytice (Czech for bouquet). It is a very original composition with a strong story. Its monumentality has appealed to both the professional public and the general public for more than a century.