PRESS RELEASE
28 April 2015
Phenomenal Baroque gems of the Pilsen Region will come to life for
nine weeks this summer with period music, theatre, flavours and
fragrances.
Baroque nights with period fireworks, top musical productions, modern and period funfairs, church
concerts, community events in the landscape, revived tours of Baroque chateaux and guided town
tours. All of this is offered as part of the '9 Weeks of Baroque' festival, which will present its rich
programme for 63 days at 63 locations around the Pilsen Region. Day after day, the festival will
uncover the riches of West Bohemian Baroque and enable visitors to experience the period
atmosphere with all their senses. The largest festival of Baroque culture in the Czech Republic is
organised by Pilsen 2015 in collaboration with fifty regional partners, under the auspices of the
Czech Minister of Culture Daniel Herman, and will take place from 29 June to 30 August 2015.
"The Pilsen Region is the meeting place of the architects Santini and Dientzenhofer; the Baroque
landscape here has its own unique atmosphere and churches, monasteries and towns are awaiting
visitors. The '9 Weeks of Baroque" festival brings unique opportunities to encounter Baroque and
modern culture in the environment of Baroque monuments and aims to make a brand out of West
Bohemian Baroque that people from all around Europe will want to visit," says the Czech Minister of
Culture Daniel Herman.
“The quality of West Bohemian Baroque is of European significance. We are very honoured to
introduce this gem to the general public. When selecting the programme, we bore in mind families
with children, young people, adults, seniors, cultural tourists, classical music experts, and domestic
and foreign visitors. 63 days of continuous programmes at 63 different places is a huge organisational
task which has been prepared for a long time on the basis of region-wide cooperation. We are
building on our experience with the first season of '6 Weeks of Baroque' which took place last year.
Baroque monuments will play host to 120 artistic companies, artists and performers this year. The
theme also resonates with the most significant event of the year, the 900th anniversary of the
founding of the Kladruby Monastery. We are all interested in seeing how the popularity of the festival
will be reflected in the rate of tourists visiting the region. Come and discover the beauty of West
Bohemian Baroque. Your visit will be a fitting reward for the dozens of regional partners who are
working to preserve our heritage: monument owners and curators, castle managers, historians,
organisers, mayors, associations and local action groups," says the Festival Manager Kateřina
Melenová.
The programme is divided into weekly cycles that each week will focus on one area. The first week
will be symbolically opened in the area of Nepomuk and Spálené Poříčí, the cradle of the most
famous Czech saint, St John of Nempomuk. The following week, the programme will move on to the
Klatovy Region and the main themes will be the Jesuits and the miracle of the Klatovy Madonna.
Chotěšov and Přeštice will be the third area, introduced at the crossroads of pilgrimage routes by
another miraculous Madonna - Divotvůrkyně Přeštická. The area of Tachov and Planá will invite
visitors for walks to springs and Baroque pilgrimages. The Domažlice Region is connected with the
tradition of the Chods, a living folklore with Baroque roots. The area of Stříbro and Kladruby is
dominated by the Kladruby Monastery, celebrating the 900th anniversary of its founding, and
Baroque chateaux. Santini's stars shine brightly in the area of Plasy, Mariánská Týnice and Radnice.
The landscape of Baroque statues is adorned by a pearl, the chateau in Manětín, which will enchant
visitors to Nečtiny and Manětín. The festival will be concluded in the area of Sušice, in the landscape
beneath the wings of the Guardian Angel.
Visitors can look forward to Baroque nights with period fireworks, top musical productions and tasty
samples of Czech cuisine. The main programme in each of the nine areas will take place on weekends
and will offer several large musical events. The cherry on the cake will be the revived premiere of
the Baroque coronation opera by J J Fux, "Constanza e Fortezza", in a historically faithful replica of a
Baroque theatre, performed by Musica Florea & Florea Theatrum in Světce u Tachova. This will be
followed by J S Bach’s "Mass in B minor" performed by Collegium 1704 in the Kladruby Monastery,
the Baroque puppet opera by F Cavalli, "La Calisto", performed by Collegium Marianum & Buchty a
loutky in Zelená Hora u Nepomuku, and a concert of Four Seasons by A Vivaldi performed by
Gabriela Demeterová and Ensemble 18+ in Mariánská Týnice.
"The 9 Weeks of Baroque festival will present the biggest stars of the Czech Baroque scene. Jana
Semerádová will open the festival with the comedy La Callisto, Marek Štryncl will present the famous
(Prague) coronation opera Costanza e Fortezza, and Václav Luks will pay tribute to Bach's brilliant
Mass in B minor. We will also present the acumen of Jiří Stivín, the temperament of Gabriela
Demeterová and the dexterity of Roman Válek," says Markéta Cukrová, the Music Editor of the '9
Weeks of Baroque" festival.
Evenings of Baroque entertainment - Baroque nights and celebrations - will take place in Baroque
chateaux and parks (Kozel, Zelená Hora, Manětín, Horažďovice) as well as in sacral surrounds (the
Jesuit college and the church in Klatovy, the Kladruby Monastery, the church in Mariánská Týnice, the
monastery in Chotěšov). Visitors to the festival can also expect extraordinary experiences at a
Baroque estate (Gigant Záluží u Stodu) and Baroque fairs (St Anne's Church in Planá, the Chapel of
the Guardian Angel in Sušice).
63 festival days at 63 locations could not have been organised without extensive collaboration with
fifty main regional partners and many other local supporters. They have been responsible for setting
up all of the backstage facilities as well as the programmes at 50 places.
You can find detailed information on the festival's website www.baroko2015.cz
Contacts:
Kateřina Melenová, Manager of the 9 Weeks of Baroque festival, Pilsen 2015
+420 776 663 394
melenova@plzen2015.cz
Mirka Reifová, PR Manager of Pilsen 2015
+420 606 090 801
reifova@plzen2015.cz
PARTNEŘI:
Národní památkový ústav, Plzeňská dieceze a biskupství,
Město Spálené Poříčí, Pavel Motejzík a Mikroregion Nepomucko, zámek Žínkovy, Miroslav
Anton, Nicovský nadační fond, městys Chudenice, spolek Otisk, Galerie Klatovy /Klenová,
Klatovské katakomby, Kolegium pro duchovní hudbu Klatovy, Václav Kubernát a MAS
Radbuza, spolek Art vrch a MKS Stod, město Přeštice, rodina Korcových, Blanka Borůvková a
K.O.S. Planá, Muzeum Tachov, spolek Ruina/Ruine, Jan Florian a MAS Český Západ - Místní
partnerství, Karel Šmirkl a spolek Chodsko žije!, Muzeum Domažlice, Karel Jindřich a MKS
Domažlice, spolek Stará cesta Plasy, město Rokycany, statek Býkov, Spolek ochránců přírody
Radnice, Muzeum Mariánská Týnice, spolek Bart Úterý, Roman Žebro Pekař a spolek Baroko
v Čechách Nečtiny, spolek Svět podle Jakuba, kulturní spolek Rašelina, spolek Lamberská
stezka, Muzeum Sušice, zámek Hrádek, spolek Šumavské cesty.
TÝM:
koncepce a dramaturgie Kateřina Melenová,
hudební dramaturgie Markéta Cukrová,
hlavní výkonná produkce Andrea Melušová,
hudební produkce Ondřej Holas,
technická spolupráce Petr Klement a Slávek Král,
grafika Tereza Melenová, Martina Donátová (gd3)
EXPERTI:
PhDr. Irena Bukačová, ing. arch. Jan Soukup, ing. Klára Salzmann PhD., PhDr., Marta
Ulrychová