EN
DE
IT
FR
ES
RU
JP
RO
The Legend of Erin
Order tickets
October 2025  | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa | Su |
The Legend of Erin – Otakar Ostrčil | Opera
Language: Czech, with surtitles in Czech and English
A remarkable opera, depicting a gripping story of forbidden love, betrayal and revenge, set in Ancient Ireland.
The composer and conductor Otakar Ostrčil (1879–1935) is a major figure in the history of the National Theatre Opera. He successfully linked up to the era of Karel Kovařovic, who in 1919 engaged him as a dramaturge and after whose death he assumed the post of the opera company’s director. In addition to nurturing the traditional repertoire, Ostrčil paid great attention to contemporary Czech and international music. During his tenure at Prague’s National Theatre, he entrusted premieres of his own operas to Brno, a case in point being The Legend of Erin, set to a play by Julius Zeyer (1841–1901), first performed on 16 June 1921 at the Na hradbách (today’s Mahen) Theatre. The National Theatre first presented the opera on 14 March 1923. The Legend of Erin was most recently performed, in a shortened concert version, at the Estates Theatre, within the 1982 Prague Spring festival. The new production, to premiere in 2025, will mark the 90th anniversary of Otakar Ostrčil’s death. After decades of its absence from Czech stages, music lovers will be afforded the opportunity to see and hear a truly remarkable opera.
The author of the libretto, the writer and playwright Julius Zeyer, drew inspiration from Celtic myths, as recounted in works by the French historians and philologists Henri d’Arbois de Jubainville and Théodore Hersart de La Villemarqué, as well as the Scottish poet James Macpherson’s The Poems of Ossian. The mythical bard Ossian and his father Fingal (King Finn), as well as King Cormac, feature in Zeyer’s play and Ostrčil’s opera, depicting a gripping story of forbidden love, betrayal and revenge, set in Ancient Ireland.
The Legend of Erin has been undertaken by the conductor Robert Jindra, Music Director of the National Theatre Opera, and the stage director Jiří Heřman, artists well known to the Prague audience.
Program and cast
Conductor: Robert Jindra
Stage director: Jiří Heřman
Sets: Dragan Stojčevski
Costume design: Kateřina Štefková
National Theatre Orchestra
National Theatre Opera Ballet
Prague National Theatre
The National Theatre today
The historical building of the National Theatre, constructed in 1883, is generally considered the prime stage in the CzechRepublic. It is the flagship of the National Theatre institution, today amounting to five buildings and encompassing four companies. You can see there Opera, Drama and Ballet performances.
Idea of building a stately theatre for the Czech nation
The National Theatre is the embodiment of the will of the Czech nation for a national identity and independence. Collections of money among the broad mass of the people facilitated its construction and hence the ceremonial laying of its foundation stone on 16 May 1868 was tantamount a nationwide political manifestation.
The idea of building a stately edifice to serve as a theatre was first mooted in the autumn of 1844 at meetings of patriots in Prague. It began to materialise through a request for “the privilege of constructing, furnishing, maintaining and managing” an independent Czech theatre, which was submitted to the Provincial Committee of the Czech Assembly by František Palacký on 29 January 1845. The privilege was granted in April 1845. Yet it was not until six years later – in April 1851 – that the Society for the Establishment of a Czech National Theatre in Prague (founded in the meantime) made its first public appeal to start collections. A year later the proceeds of the first collections allowed for the purchase of land belonging to a former salt works with the area of less than 28 acres, which predetermined the magnificent location of the theatre on the bank of the river Vltava facing the panorama of Prague Castle, yet at the same time the cramped area and trapezoidal shape posed challenging problems for the building’s designers.
By car
To the centre (OldTown), approach on Masarykovo nábřeží (Masaryk embankment) in the direction from the Dancing House, at the crossroads in front of the National Theatre turn right to Divadelní street and then right again to Ostrovní street to the National Theatre car park. Parking costs 50 CZK/h.
By tram
By daytime trams Nos. 6, 9, 18 and 22 and night trams Nos. 53, 57, 58, 59 to the stop “Národní divadlo” – in front of the NT historical building; by daytime tram No. 17 to the stop “Národní divadlo”.
By metro
To the station “Můstek”, line B (yellow), and then by foot on Národní street; or to the station “Karlovo náměstí” and then two stops by tram No. 6, 18 or 22 to the stop “Národní divadlo”. To the station “Staroměstská”, line A (green), and then two stops by tram No. 17 to the stop “Národní divadlo”.
Related events