Opera Travel

Ceske Budejovice

Welcome to Emmy Destinn International Opera Festival

The outstanding Czech soprano Emmy Destinn was among the world’s most famous singers. She enjoyed a great success on leading opera stages, such as the Berlin Court Opera, Bayreuth, Covent Garden in London, Paris and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, above all in operas by Puccini, Wagner, Verdi, Richard Strauss and Smetana. Among her partners on the stage was the famous Italian tenor Enrico Caruso. After completing her international artistic career, Emmy Destinn lived for many years in seclusion at her mansion in Straz nad Nezarkou in South Bohemia. She died in Ceske Budejovice in 1930.

In 1990, on the 60th anniversary of Emmy Destinn’s death in Ceske Budejovice, a commemorative bust of her was unveiled in front of the South Bohemian Theather, and the Emmy Destinn International Music Festival was founded. The festival ended with a gala operatic concert in honour of the singer, featuring Katia Ricciarelli and Peter Dvorsky with the Prague Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ondrej Lenard.

The Emmy Destinn International Music Festival established the tradition whereby a singer who has appeared at one of the world’s most famous opera houses where Emmy Destinn herself sang, (i.e. the Metropolitan or Covent Garden) is always engaged for the final gala concert. Over the past ten years, the Emmy Destinn International Music Festival has welcomed Sherril Milnes, Eva Randova, Giuseppe Sabatini, Francesco Araiza, Miriam Gauci, Lucia Alberti, Eva Urbanova, Peter Dvorsky and Katia Ricciarelli. Instrumental, choral and organ concerts, featuring leading Czech and international soloists are also part of the Emmy Destinn Music Festival. Orchestras like the Czech Symphony Orchestra of Brno, the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra of Ostrava, the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the Czech Virtuosi, conducted by Ondrej Lenard, Vaclav Neumann, Leos Svarovsky and Jan Zbavitel, have performed at the Emmy Destinn Music Festival.

The Emmy Destinn Music Festival in Ceske Budejovice takes place each year at the end of August and the beginning of September, and also includes the Emmy Destinn International Singing Competition.

Please take our invitation to the opera world of the Emmy Destinn’s International Music Festival discovering the destination of Ceske Budejovice, and enjoy your music weekends choosing from our to-be-prepared Destinn Music Breaks Packages.

Should you wish to be notified about the Emmy Destinn International Music Festival program and packages in advance, please write to us at helpdesk@navigateme.to.

See you in Ceske Budejovice 2005,