Mini operas by Jiří Bulis

Guma: a mini-opera for male solo and chorus
Smrtipot: a mini-opera for male solo, two narrators and chorus
Ballad about four girls, a maiden and a colonel: for solos, girls' and boys' choir
This year marks thirty years since the musician and composer Jiří Bulis (1946–1993) left Brno's independent theater scene, whose name is closely associated with, for example, Brno's HaDivadl and the Goose on a String Theatre. However, Bulis did not only compose stage music and theater chansons, but also classical music. Ensemble Opera Diversa is premiering three of the composer's surviving theater mini-operas for HaDivadlo with the names Guma, Smrtipot and Ballad about four girls, a virgin and a colonel. All three mini-operas are united not only by the personality of the composer, but also by the fact that they were part of the theater productions of the then Prostejov Hanácky Theater (now HaDivadla) in the 1980s. They also have in common a unique musical and theatrical poetics combining melancholic moods with a certain perspective and humor, as is typical in the musical work of Jiří Bulis.
The mini-opera Guma, performed in the Hanácké theater, based on a text by Miloš Černousek, was performed as part of an author's production entitled Guma (episodes from the life of Josef G.) directed by Arnošt Goldflam from 1985. This mini-opera was part of an episodic rendition of the life of the main character of the entire production – Josef Guma, who had to deal with his work duties, although he always preferred to write poetic poems.
The mini-operas Smrtipot and Ballad about four girls, a virgin and a colonel, both based on texts by Alexander Ivanovich Vveděnský (translated by Václav Daňek), were part of the production of Mirrors (1984, directed by Arnošt Goldflam), also in the Hanácké theater. The light-hearted Ballad of Four Girls, a Maiden and a Colonel tells the story of a Russian officer who lures one of the girls into privacy. However, we will see who takes off who's shirt.
On the contrary, the tragicomic mini-opera Death Pot for a male solo, two narrators and chorus raises a mysterious question: What, or who, is Death Pot? A dying father knows the answer, but can he pass it on to his sons? He will change his mind as soon as his offspring finish the foursome!