Zdeněk Fibich und seine Shakespeare-Oper Bouře
Zdeněk Fibich and His Opera Bouře on the Theme of W. Shakespeare

Summary/Abstract: Shakespeare is one of the European writers most frequently set to music. In the 18th century, he became the prototype of a genius, who rose to the position of a model of a creative artist and a free man due to the violation of all the rules of Aristotelian poetics. In Leipzig, the city of the Enlightenment, Goethe was already confronted with such a refined image of man, and this tradition determined the atmosphere of the city until Zdeněk Fibich studied there. The operas he composed generally receive little attention. In choice of theme, they are only exceptionally – as in the case of the opera Šárka – connected with a Czech national myth; in other cases they follow classic European works, such as Schiller’s The Bride of Messina and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Fibich composed Bouře [The Tempest] in 1893/94 to a libretto by Jaroslav Vrchlický (the pseudonym of Emil Jakub Frída), and the première took place on 1 March 1895 in Prague. This article attempts to outline the spiritual and musical-historical background of the work.

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