Händel’s Alcina, prepared musically by Václav Luks with Collegium 1704 and staged in Jiří Heřman’s lavish production, returns to the Janáček Theatre stage for just four performances. In the title role, Magdalena Kožená will make a rare appearance.
Kožená first encountered the role in a concert version on a European tour, later recording an acclaimed album that went on to win numerous major awards. She will be performing Alcina on stage for the first time at the National Theatre Brno Janáček Opera. "Alcina is one of Handel's operas with a truly powerful story. And her role has a beautiful evolution: it is wonderful to see how far the heart of a woman, never before marked by love, can travel. Each of her arias occupies an entirely different emotional world. I believe that in this case the staging will enhance both the music and the story," she adds.
The production enjoyed a successful premiere in 2022 and received the Divadelní noviny Award for Production of the Year. Audiences can now see it again on 17, 19, 30 November and 2 December 2025 at the Janáček Theatre, in an exclusive cast. Ahead of each performance, a dramaturgical introduction will take place in the foyer; after the 17 November performance, audiences can look forward to a signing session, and the 2 December performance will be followed by a discussion with the creative team. This is a rare opportunity to see Magdalena Kožená performing in her home city with the NdB Janáček Opera ensemble, on the very stage where her operatic career began. The cast also includes some outstanding soloists: Doubravka Novotná, Andrea Široká, Kangmin Justin Kim, Monika Jägerová, Tomáš Král, etc.
Alcina contains some of the most beautiful music ever written for the human voice; few composers have matched Handel’s melodic invention, dramatic sensibility, and profound insight into the depths of the human soul. The mighty sorceress Alcina has conjured a magnificent palace on her island, enticing lovers into the web of her power. One of them is the Saracen knight Ruggiero, who succumbs to her magic and forgets his betrothed Bradamante. But Bradamante refuses to give him up and, disguised, sets out to save him.
Brno-born Magdalena Kožená is one of the most sought-after singers of our time. Her standing is affirmed by numerous Czech and international awards and by her many acclaimed recordings for Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft, EMI Classics, Linn Records, and Pentatone.
She studied singing at the conservatory in her native Brno, then with Eva Blahová at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. The most significant of her many successes at home and abroad is her overall victory at the 6th International Mozart Competition in Salzburg in 1995. The singer has received virtually every major award bestowed by classical-music journals, including several Gramophone Awards. Magdalena released her swing album Cole Porter on her own label, Brnofon. Her most recent solo recordings for Pentatone include Folk Songs and Czech Songs with the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, and the song L’extase with pianist Mitsuko Uchida.
Magdalena Kožená is a regular guest on the world’s major concert stages and at prestigious festivals, performing with leading orchestras under conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Jiří Bělohlávek, Gustavo Dudamel, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Mariss Jansons, Sir Charles Mackerras, and Sir Roger Norrington. Her recital partners include Daniel Barenboim, Kirill Gerstein, András Schiff, Yefim Bronfman, and Mitsuko Uchida. Renowned for her interpretation of early music, she performs with top period-instrument ensembles including the Venice Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Il Giardino Armonico, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Collegium 1704, and La Cetra Barockorchester Basel. She is also a distinguished operatic artist, applauded at opera houses around the world, including Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera.
Magdalena Kožená is a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, a recipient of the Medal of Merit (First Class) awarded in 2023 by the President of the Czech Republic, the Gratias Agit Award of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Gold Medal for Merit in the Arts from the International Committee of Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Arts. These two honours were followed by the respected G. F. Händel Prize, awarded by the city of Halle for outstanding interpretation of the work of its famous native son, and most recently also the Antonín Dvořák Prize, which she will receive in December. She is also the recipient of the Brno Prize, the Prize of the South Moravian Region and is an honorary doctor of the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno. As an tireless advocate of Czech music and Czech culture, she became the patron of the Concentus Moraviae festival, lent her name to the Year of Czech Music 2014, and also took patronage of the pan-European classical-music project Czech Dreams. She continuously supports the activities of her charitable foundation, established to help Czech elementary art schools.
In the current season, Kožená has appeared at the Lucerne Festival, undertaken a European tour with Berio’s Folk Songs alongside the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and performed with the Vienna Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, and Czech Philharmonic. In addition to a long list of recital appearances, she returns to several opera stages: as Alcina she will be welcomed by the National Theatre Brno, and she also returns to the Berlin State Opera, where she will portray Janáček’s Gold-Stripe the Fox for the first time. Another début will come with the title role of Händel’s Ariodante, performed under Andrea Marcon with the baroque orchestra La Cetra. The season will conclude with Debussy’s Mélisande, again at the Berlin State Opera.
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