Benjamin Britten
Family opera
Premiere 8. 2. 2019
This opera is composed for children and adults in their roles of both actors and spectators. The first part, Let’s Make an Opera!, involves the audience: in the course of the play, an opera is created and rehearsed, and it is then performed in the second part. Its main character is little Sam, who is used by the sweep-master Black Bob to clean the chimneys where no adult can go. Sam gets stuck in a chimney, but is rescued by some children who are playing hide-and-seek in a room, and who then help him get away from the merciless Black Bob. Composer Benjamin Britten ranks – next to Henry Purcell, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Edward Elgar –among the most significant British composers, and among the most highly esteemed 20th century composers, in line with Stravinsky, Schönberg, Bartók, Ravel, Janáček and others. The Little Sweep holds a specific position among his world-famous operas. Although the otherwise complicated Britten was always close to children’s soul, his work includes only one opera that focuses on child audiences in this way. The performance is produced by the experienced director and artistic head of the Little Theatre, Petr Hašek.
In Czech translation with English subtitles.
