VILÉM BLODEK’S OPERA IN THE WELL

For the occasion of the 150^th anniversary of the death of the Czech composer Vilém Blodek, Supraphon has prepared a real treat for opera lovers. For the first time, the comic opera In the Well is being released on CD in the original 1959 stereo version. This rare recording, never before released in stereo on any physical recording medium, was released briefly only on LP records in monaural sound in the first half of the 1960s. After that, the recording disappeared from the catalogue for many decades. This unique rarity from the dawn of the stereo era is only now, nearly 66 years later, being released in its original audio format after thorough audio restoration of the original tapes. The album is being released on Friday, 24 January 2025 on CD and in the Hi-Res, FLAC, and MP3 digital formats.

The recording features superb performances by the soloists Milada Šubrtová, Štěpánka Štěpánová, Ivo Žídek, and Zdeněk Kroupa. The chorus and orchestra of the National Theatre in Prague are conducted by František Škvor, and this performance is Škvor’s only complete opera recording in the Supraphon catalogue. This special edition also commemorates the recent 100^th anniversary of the birth of Milada Šubrtová, an important singer at the National Theatre in Prague.

A Czech composer, choirmaster, flautist, pianist, and music teacher of the Romantic era, Vilém Blodek was born in 1834 in Prague. Thanks to his extraordinary musical talent, at the age of 12 he was already admitted to the Prague Conservatoire, where he studied the flute from 1846 to 1852. He won fame mainly for his comic opera In the Well. After its premiere, In the Well became the most frequently performed opera in this country, and from the end of the 1870s it began making its way abroad as well. Blodek also composed songs, sacred music, chamber music, orchestral works, and piano pieces. Besides the opera In the Well, he also composed the opera Clarissa and the unfinished opera Zítek. He suffered from mental illness, and he spent the last four years of his life in an insane asylum. He died in 1874 at the age of 39.