9 WEEKS OF BAROQUE Festival

... experience Baroque with all your senses ...

29 June – 30 August 2015

The festival of Baroque monuments, landscape and culture of the Pilsen Region
A 63 day programme taking place at 63 locations of West Bohemian Baroque

Organised by Pilsen 2015 in cooperation with regional partners
under the auspices of Daniel Herman, the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic

www.baroko2015.cz

Fragrances, flavours, music, monuments, paintings and Baroque landscape all await you over 9 summer weeks in 9 areas of the Pilsen Region. The 9 Weeks of Baroque festival invites you to daily programmes held over 63 days at 63 locations in West Bohemia. A phenomenal complex of Baroque monuments will be at the centre of this grand summer festival and will be presented as a European cultural discovery. Visitors can look forward to Baroque Nights with historic fireworks, top-class music productions, contemporary and historic fairs, concerts in churches, community events in the landscape, revived tours of Baroque castles and guided tours of towns. The programme has been arranged to suit families with children, adults and elderly people, cultural tourists, connoisseurs of classical music, pilgrims, and domestic and foreign visitors alike.

Discover with us the hidden wealth of West Bohemian Baroque. Your visit will also reward the work of dozens of regional partners: owners and administrators of monuments, wardens, historians, organisers, mayors, associations and local action groups who maintain this legacy. The festival's symbolic start will take place in the area of Nepomuk/Spálené Poříčí, the cradle of St John of Nepomuk, the most famous Bohemian saint. The programme for the following week will be focused on the region of Klatovy. The main topics here are the Jesuits and the Miraculous Madonna of Klatovy. The third presented area is Chotěšov/Přeštice, where pilgrim routes meet another miraculous Madonna – the Lady of Miracles of Přeštice. The area of Tachov/Planá invites visitors on journeys to springs and on a Baroque pilgrimage. The region of Domažlice is associated with the tradition of the Chods, a folklore with Baroque roots that lives on to this day. The unique monastery of Kladruby, now celebrating the nine hundredth anniversary of its founding, dominates the region of Stříbro/Kladruby along with Baroque castles. The area of Plasy/Mariánská Týnice/Radnice offers encounters with ten unique buildings, the ten stars of J. B. Santini. A landscape of Baroque statues awaits you in the region of Nečtiny and Manětín, adorned by the Manětín Chateau as the pearl in its centre. The festival will end in the region of Sušice, in the countryside beneath the wings of the Guardian Angel.

The main programme, packed into weekends, will offer several grand musical events and programmes of Baroque Nights. The highlight of this programme is the renewed world premiere of the Baroque coronation opera by J. J. Fux, "Costanza e fortezza", at a historically accurate replica of a Baroque theatre (Musica Florea & Theatrum floreum, Světce Riding School in Tachov on 31.7. and 1.8.), “Mass in H Minor” by J. S. Bach (Collegium 1704, Kladruby Monastery on 25.7.), the Baroque puppet opera by F. Cavalli, "La Calisto" (Collegium Marianum & Buchty a loutky, Zelená Hora at Nepomuk on 4.7.), the oratorio "The Messiah" by G. F. Händel (Czech Ensemble Baroque, Manětín on 21.8.), music by the Dobřany native J. J. I. Brentner (Ensemble Inégal, Přeštice on 19.7.), and a concert of “The Four Seasons” by A. Vivaldi performed by Gabriela Demeterová and Ensemble 18+ (Marian Týnice on 15.8.). The theme evenings of Baroque entertainment - the Baroque Nights and associated festivities are prepared both in the environment of castles and castle parks (Kozel Castle on 3.7., Zelená Hora Castle on 4.7., Manětín Chateau on 22.8., Horažďovice Chateau on 28.8.) and in sacral surroundings (Jesuit College and Klatovy Church on 10.8., Kladruby Monastery on 1.8., Mariánská Týnice Church on 15.8., Chotěšov Monastery on 17.7.). An exceptional experience awaits you at a rural Baroque yard (the Giant Yard in Záluží at Stod on 18.7.) and at variations on Baroque pilgrimages (the Church of St Anne in Planá on 24.7., the Chapel of the Guardian Angel in Sušice on 30.8.).

63 days of the festival’s programme at 63 different sites could only happen thanks to cooperation with more than 40 major regional partners and dozens of other local supporters and promoters. They have not only provided all the facilities, but they have also prepared the programme at 50 places.

PARTNERS:

National Heritage Institute, Pilsen Diocese and Episcopacy,

the Town of Spálené Poříčí, Pavel Motejzík and Microregion Nepomucko, Žínkovy Castle, Miroslav Anton, the Endowment Fund of Nicov, the Town of Chudenice, the Otisk association, The Gallery of Klatovy/Klenová, Klatovy Catacombs, Collegium for Sacred Music of Klatovy, Václav Kubernát and MAS Radbuza, the Society of Art vrch and MKS Stod, the Town of Přeštice, the Korc family, Blanka Borůvková and K.O.S. Planá, Tachov Museum, Ruina/Ruine association, Jan Florian and MAS Czech West - Local Partnerships, Karel Šmirkl and the Chodsko Alive! association, Domažlice Museum, Karel Jindřich and MKS Domažlice, Old Path Plasy association, the City of Rokycany, Býkov Farm, the Association for Nature Conservation of Radnice, Mariánská Týnice Museum, the association Bart of Úterý, Roman Žebro Pekař and the association Baroque in Bohemia of Nečtiny, The World according to Jacob association, the cultural association Rašelina, the Path of Lamberk association, Sušice Museum, Hrádek Castle, the Šumava Routes association.

TEAM:

concept and dramaturgy by Kateřina Melenová,
music dramaturgy by Markéta Cukrová,
main executive production by Andrea Melušová,
music production by Ondřej Holas,
technical cooperation by Petr Klement and Slávek Král,
graphics by Tereza Melenová and Martina Donátová (gd3)

EXPERTS:

PhDr. Irena Bukačová, ing. arch. Jan Soukup, ing. Klára Salzmann PhD., PhDr. Marta Ulrychová