FULL Krútňava or The Whirlpool (Suchoň) Bratislava 2008 Miroslav Dvorský, Mária Porubčinová

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Krútňava or The Whirlpool   
• Composer: Suchoň Eugen  
• Libretto: Eugen Suchoň, Štefan Hoza, based on a novella, Za vyšným mlynom (Beyond the Upper Mill) by Milo Urban    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Slovak National Opera, Bratislava, Slovakia  
• Recorded: 2008
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Miroslav Dvorský, Mária Porubčinová, Jan Galla, Frantisek Duriac, Alzbeta Michalkova, Elena Holickova, Hana Stolfova-Bandova, Eva Seniglova, Denisa Slepkovska
• Conductor: Dusan Stefanek  
• Orchestra:
• Chorus Master: Pavol Prochazka  
• Choreographer: Jozef Dolinsky  
• Stage Director: Juraj Jakubisko  
• Stage Designer: Milan Ferencik  
• Costume Designer: Ludmila Vaossova  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: STV 2  
• Date Published: 2008  
• Format: Broadcast
• Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
• Subtitles: nosubs  
• Video Recording from: ok     FULL VIDEO
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

Eugen Suchoň was inspired by Milo Urban’s novella Za vysnym mlynom. Together with another important personality of our musical culture, Štefan Hoz, they wrote a libretto about the life of a Slovak village after the First World War. However, it is not a “folkloric” opera, it is a drama of sin and punishment with images of joy and repentance, a dark and proud story, a story of love and hatred, which in its essence is a drama of conscience seeking refuge in liberating faith in God. This topic interfered with the “supremacy” of the time, so censorship intervened. The creators could return to the original version only in the sixties of the last century.

Krútňava premiered on December 10, 1949, and since then it has been one of our most performed opera works. Abroad, Krútňava was presented in more than twenty opera houses, mostly under the name Katrena. In the USA in 1979, Eugen Suchoň also attended the premiere at the University of Michigan. There, the piece was performed under the name The Whirlpool with soloists from the New York Metropolitan Opera – Alexandra Hunt sang Katerina and Giorgio Tozzi sang Štelina.