CERVENA (2017)
CERVENA THE MOVIE is Olga Sommerová’s feature-length documentary about the world-famous opera singer and actress Soňa Červená.
The film talks the story of a woman whose humble history, private and public life was influenced by the great events of 20th century Europe. Her artistic career includes over a hundred opera roles in five thousand performances on the stages of five continents.
FILM AWARDS
54th International Television Festival Golden Prague: Grand Prix Golden Prague
ABOUT MOVIE
Production date: 2017
Genre: Documentary / Biography
Length: 83 min.
Country: Czech Republic / Slovakia
Production: Evolution Films (CZ)
Co-producers: ČT - Česká televize (CZ); MUSEUM MONTANELLI (CZ); PubRes (SK)
World premiere: May 17th, 2017
International premiere: May 24th, 2017
Distribution premiere: September 7th, 2017
Original title: Červená
Original language: Czech
English subtitles/dubbing: yes/no
Format: 2D DCP
AUTHORS, CAST & CREW
Director: Olga Sommerová
Script: Olga Sommerová
Photography: Olga Špátová
Sound: Petr Provazník, Eliška Bejčková, Petr Kapeller, Richard Müller
Editing: Jakub Hejna
Starring: Soňa Červená
Producer: Pavel Berčík (Evolution Films/CZ)
Co-roducers: Alena Müllerová (Česká televize/CZ), Dadja Altenburg Kohl (Museum Montanelli/CZ), Zuzana Mistríková (PubRes/SK), Ľubica Orechovská (PubRes/SK)
Soňa Červená (left) with director Olga Sommerová (right).
Supported by: Czech State Cinematography Fund
ABOUT SOŇA ČERVENÁ
Ms. Soňa Červená on Festival My 20th Century, Brno, Czech Republic, November 27th, 2012 (photo by Ben Skála - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons).
Soňa Červená (born 9 September 1925 in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech operatic mezzo-soprano who's had an active international career since the 1950s. She has enjoyed particularly lengthy and fruitful associations with the Frankfurt Opera and the San Francisco Opera. She is currently on the roster of singers at the National Theatre in Prague.
She made her professional opera début in 1954 at the opera house in Brno where she remained for the next three years.
Červená had a major success at the National Theatre in Prague as Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier in 1957. She portrayed that role again for her debut at the Berlin State Opera the following year; becoming committed to that house from 1958–1961. After this she became a principal artist at the Opern- und Schauspielhaus Frankfurt, which remained her principal home until the early 1990s. She sang in a wide variety of performances, including the première of Rudolf Wagner-Régeny's Das Bergwerk zu Falun at the Salzburg Festival in 1961. She also made several guest appearances at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg State Opera, Semperoper, and the Vienna State Opera.
In 1962, Červená made her United States debut at the San Francisco Opera in the title role of Georges Bizet's Carmen. She returned almost annually to this house through 1971 in such roles as Anna in Les Troyens, Azucena in Il trovatore, Berta in The Barber of Seville, Clarion in Strauss's Capriccio, Countess de Coigny in Andrea Chénier, Countess Geschwitz in Lulu, the First Norn in Götterdämmerung, Fricka in Das Rheingold, Herodias in Salome, The innkeeper in Boris Godunov, Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro, The Marquise of Birkenfeld in La fille du régiment, Marthe Schwertlein in Faust, Mistress Quickly in Falstaff, the Mother in Louise, Mother Goose in The Rake's Progress, Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, Rossweisse in Die Walküre, Tisbe in La Cenerentola, and the Woman in the United States premiere of Gunther Schuller's The Visitation. After a nine-year absence, Červená returned to San Francisco in 1980 to portray Countess Waldner in Arabella, Flora in La traviata, Mamma Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana, and Starenka Buryjovka in Jenůfa.
Červená has made several appearances at the Bayreuth Festival, including Flosshilde in The Ring Cycle (1960), Rossweisse (1966–67), and a Flower Maiden in Parsifal (1962–63 and 1966–67). She portrayed Clarion at the 1963 and 1964 Glyndebourne Festivals. With the London Symphony Orchestra she appeared as a soloist in a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. In 1971 she made her debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Herodias. In 1981 she sang in the world premiere of Antonio Bibalo's Ghosts at the Kiel Opera House. In 1983 she gave an acclaimed portrayal of Marfa Ignatevna Kabanová in Leoš Janáček's Káťa Kabanová at La Monnaie.
She has been starring as Emilia Marty in Karel Čapek´s The Makropulos Case directed by Robert Wilson at the National Theatre in Prague since the production's debut in November 2010.
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