Today the ortel will be called and the culprit will be sacrificed to the law... Things are boiling over among the people in the courtroom where the trial of Dalibor is taking place. Is he guilty of murder or just defending his right? The victim's sister Milada implacably calls for severe punishment for her brother's death, but meeting Dalibor face-to-face shakes her convictions. As the king decides, at a time when everyone present seems to be playing their own political game…
Smetana's Dalibor is much more than just a romantic tragedy with beautiful music based on the medieval legend about the knight Dalibor from Kozojed, who learned to play the violin in prison, which was first performed on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone of the National Theatre. The drama about the desire for revenge, love passion and political intrigue is an extraordinary work to which it is not easy to find the key. British director David Pountney is one of the great admirers and promoters of Czech opera. The Brno audience could be convinced that he can bring a look that reveals the deepest layers of human dramas during his production of Janáček's Její pastorkyně in 2004. On this occasion, the excellent conductor Tomáš Hanus returns to Brno with him to rehearse Smetanov's Dalibor, who on the Brno stage it was not heard for almost thirty years, as part of the Smetana200 project.
