The Antonín Dvořák Theatre is an opera house in

Ostrava Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four riv ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, which opened in 1907. Since 1919 it has been one of two permanent venues of the National Moravian Silesian Theatre.

History

The Neo-baroque building of the theatre was designed by architect

Alexander Graf Alexander Graf (''né'' Nenashev; born 25 August 1962) is an Uzbekistani-German chess grandmaster. He was Uzbekistani Chess Champion in 1989 and German Chess Champion in 2004. Chess career He won the Uzbekistani Chess Championship in 1989. N ...

. It was built by the Ostrava company ''Noe & Storch''. The Antonín Dvořák Theatre was the first building in what is now the Czech Republic to use reinforced concrete beams. The interior was designed by sculptors of the company ''Johann Bock & Son'' . The sculptures decorating the facade were made by Eduard Smetana and Leopold Kosiga. ''Drama'' and ''Music'', two reliefs in the main

foyer A lobby is a room in a building used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer, reception area or an entrance hall, it is often a large room or complex of rooms (in a theatre, opera house, concert hall, showroom, cinema, etc. ...

of the theatre, were donated by academic sculptor Helena Scholzová ( Helen Zelezny-Scholz). The ''Antonín Dvořák Theatre'' was opened on 28 September 1907, as a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

theatre. Up to 1919, the performances were solely in German. Following the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the theatre passed to the hands of Czechoslovak state and became a stage of the ''National Moravian Silesian Theatre''. From 1949, the theatre was renamed as the ''

Zdeněk Nejedlý Zdeněk Nejedlý (10 February 1878 – 9 March 1962) was a Czech musicologist, historian, music critic, author, and politician whose ideas dominated the cultural life of what is now the Czech Republic for most of the twentieth century. Although ...

Theatre'' and in 1990 as the ''Antonín Dvořák Theatre''.

External links

*
TACE
– entry in TACE database Theatres in Ostrava Buildings and structures in Ostrava Music venues in the Czech Republic Theatres completed in 1918 Music venues completed in 1918

Theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

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