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LolitaLolita
Opera

Lolita

Rodion Shchedrin

Premiere: 3 and 5 October 2019

The Estates Theatre

Basic information

Venue

The Estates Theatre

Approximate running time

2 hours 50 minutes, 1 intermission (30 minutes) minutes

Language

In Russian, surtitles in Czech, English

Premiere

October 3, 2019

Czech premiere

The piece, retelling a multi-layered story, blending themes of sensuality, love and sin.

The American bestseller about the passionate sexual relationship between Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged intellectual, literature professor and writer, and the 12-year-old Lolita, an unbridled, impudent and lustful girl, set in the 1940s or the 1950s, gave rise to fierce debates and generated controversy.

Cast

  • 2023-2024
  • 2024-2025

Creatives

Musical preparation
Sergey Neller
Directed, Adapted and Performed
Sláva Daubnerová
Light design
Daniel Tesař
Chorus master
Adolf Melichar
Chorus master of the Kühn's Children's Choir
Petr Louženský

About

State Opera Orchestra
State Opera Chorus (basses)
Prague Philharmonic Children's Choir

Following the initial wave of decrial, its author, Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977), a Russian-American novelist and poet, gained global fame. Almost four decades after the book’s publication, the Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin (b. 1932) created an opera set to Nabokov’s best-known work. It is his fifth stage piece inspired by literary works by great Russian writers, with the previous ones being the opera Dead Souls (1976, based on Gogol) and the ballets Anna Karenina (1972, based on Tolstoy), The Seagull (1979) and The Lady with the Lapdog (1985, the latter two based on Chekhov).

Shchedrin composed the opera Lolita to his own libretto to commission from Mstislav Rostropovich, who conducted its world premiere (in Swedish translation) on 14 December 1994 in Stockholm. The piece, retelling a multi-layered story, blending themes of sensuality, love and sin, will receive its Czech premiere.

The opera’s music reflects a variety of inspirations, with the most distinctly palpable being the Russian Orthodox chant. Whereas Lolita is just the second Shchedrin opera to be presented on a Czech stage (on 20 December 1978, Brno hosted the Czechoslovak premiere of Dead Souls), his ballets, particularly Carmen, are familiar to the local audience. With a certain degree of self-irony, the composer incorporated in Lolita a quotation from Carmen. Shchedrin wrote the majority of his ballets for his wife, the prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, who performed in Prague on several occasions.

The very first Czech production of Shchedrin’s Lolita is created for the National Theatre in Prague by the renowned Slovak director and performance artist Sláva Daubnerová, who is noted for her singular approach to 20th–century opera, affording it a forcible and visually provocative touch. 

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Practical information

Where to buy tickets

The National Theatre sells tickets up to 6 months in advance. We are currently selling tickets for performances of Drama, Ballet, Opera and Laterna magika taking place in March-August 2024.


When purchasing online, you can get an e-ticket. You can pick up printed tickets in person at the box offices of the National Theatre.

What to wear?

By their appearance, attire and behaviour, the audience is obliged to adhere to the accustomed practice expected from them when attending a theatre performance.

Parking at the Estates Theatre

Unfortunately, there is no parking near The Estates Theater. You can use the guarded parking lot in the Kotva shopping center (Revoluční 1/655, Prague 1) and Paladium (Na Poříčí 1079 / 3a, Prague 1).

Buffets at the Estates Theater

No waiting. For your benefit, please pre-order your food and beverages at the bar to minimize waiting in the queue!

Menu (PDF, 60 kB)