Synopsis
Documentary opera exploring the nature of memory, music, and narration through imprints of controversial and progressive composer Jan Kapr, awarded by Stalin and later completely banned in communist Czechoslovakia, but performed abroad by prestigious musical bodies. Kapr Code transfers Kapr’s strong and ambivalent life story into opera music composition. The storyline follows the “documentary libretto” based on Kapr’s personal, never before published archive full of his magnetic tapes, letters, notes and funny sketches on 8 mm films. 17 opera singers from internationally renowned Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno sing scenes from Kapr’s life, including fragments of police reports, Kapr’s political accounts or love correspondence. Their choirmaster, Petr Fiala, is Kapr’s last living student. Kapr Code is a playful reconstruction of life after death; where the memory of film and Kapr’s music interacts with a story gaining mythological dimensions.