Death of a Czech opera reformer
mainEva Herrmannová, reforming intendant of Czech National Opera in the five years after Communism, died yesterday in Prague, aged 87.
A survivor of the Theresienstadt concentration camp, she worked through the dark years as a critic and historian. Once installed at the theatre, she succeeded in bringing home Czech émigré musicians to perform in their native tongue.
There’s a snippet of her in conversation at https://sfi.usc.edu/video/eva-herrmannov%C3%A1-defending-herself-school.
That must have been a tough lady. Eastern Europe, and especially the Czech republic, once belonged to Europe’s heartland, producing so many artists and intellectuals, and there is still this feeling that the east has not quite been integrated (as political tendencies today amply demonstrate). I think we still do not know enough of all the great artistic characters in those lands.