Emil František Burian (11 June 1904 – 9 August 1959) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

poet, journalist, singer, actor, musician, composer, dramatic adviser, playwright and director. He was also active in

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Cominte ...

politics.

Early life and career

Burian was born in

Plzeň Plzeň (; German and English: Pilsen, in German ) is a city in the Czech Republic. About west of Prague in western Bohemia, it is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 169,000 inhabita ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, where he came from a musical family. His father, Emil Burian, was an opera singer. E. F. Burian himself is the father of singer and writer Jan Burian. He studied under the tutelage of J. B. Foerster at

Prague Conservatory The Prague Conservatory or Prague Conservatoire ( cs, Pražská konzervatoř) is a music school in Prague, Czech Republic, founded in 1808. Currently, Prague Conservatory offers four or six year study courses, which can be compared to the level ...

, whence he graduated in 1927, but had begun participating in cultural life much sooner. Along with

Karel Teige Karel Teige (13 December 1900 – 1 October 1951) was a Czech modernist avant-garde artist, writer, critic and one of the most important figures of the 1920s and 1930s movement. He was a member of the ''Devětsil'' (Butterbur) movement in the 1 ...

and

Vítězslav Nezval Vítězslav Nezval (; 26 May 1900 – 6 April 1958) was a Czech poet, writer and translator. He was one of the most prolific avant-garde Czech writers in the first half of the 20th century and a co-founder of the Surrealist movement in Czechos ...

, E. F. Burian was a key member of

Devětsil The Devětsil () was an association of Czech avant-garde artists, founded in 1920 in Prague. From 1923 on there was also an active group in Brno. The movement discontinued its activities in 1930 (1927 in Brno). Founded as U. S. Devětsil (Umělec ...

, an association of Czech

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

artists in the 1920s.Gafijczuk, D., & Sayer, D., ''The Inhabited Ruins of Central Europe: Re-imagining Space, History, and Memory'' (

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains off ...

, 2013)
p. 149
EFB Voiceband 1928

In 1926–1927 he worked with

Osvobozené divadlo Osvobozené divadlo (1926–1938) (''Liberated Theatre'' or ''Prague Free Theatre'') was a Prague avant-garde theatre scene founded as the theatre section of an association of Czech avant-garde artists Devětsil (''Butterbur'') in 1926. The theatr ...

, but after disputes with

Jindřich Honzl Jindřich Honzl (14 May 1894 – 20 April 1953) was a Czech theatre theorist, film and theatre director and pedagogue who was a leading representative of Czech modern theater. Biography Honzl was born on May 14, 1894, in Humpolec in the family ...

, he and

Jiří Frejka Jiří (; ''YI-RZHEE''), the Czech is a masculine given name, equivalent to English George, may refer to: Given name B * Jiří Antonín Benda * Jiří Baborovský *Jiří Barta *Jiří Bartoška * Jiří Bicek * Jiří Bobok * Jiří Bubla *Ji� ...

left the theatre. Later they founded their own theatre, Da-Da. He also worked with the Moderní studio theatre scene. In 1927 he founded the musical and elocutionary ensemble Voiceband. In 1923 Burian joined the

. His work, strongly influenced by communist ideas, bordered on political agitation. In May 1933 he founded the D 34 theatre, with a strongly leftist-oriented program.

Life in concentration camps

In 1941 Burian was arrested and spent the rest of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...

at the Small Fortress Theresienstadt, Dachau and finally in

Neuengamme Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in Northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, th ...

. He helped to organize illegal cultural programs for the inmates. In 1945, he survived the RAF attack against the prison ship

Cap Arcona SS ''Cap Arcona'', named after Cape Arkona on the island of Rügen, was a large German ocean liner, later a ship of the German Navy, and finally a prison ship. A flagship of the Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft ("Hambur ...

, and returned to Czechoslovakia, where he was already presumed dead.

Post-war period

After the war, he founded D 46 and D 47 theatre, and led theatres in

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

and the operetta house in

Karlín Karlín (german: Karolinenthal) is a cadastral area of Prague, part of Prague 8 municipal district, formerly an independent town (which became part of Prague in 1922). It is bordered by the river Vltava and Holešovice to the north, Vítkov ...

. After the communist putsch in 1948, he worked as a member of the Czechoslovak communist parliament. In the

post-war In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period c ...

period, he became one of the leading promoters of the communist cultural nomenclature. He attempted to reorganize theatres, with a goal of placing communists into leadership posts of theatres. Burian died in 1959 in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Work

His work, deeply influenced by

dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...

ism,

futurism Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such ...

and

poetism Poetism (in Czech: ''poetismus'') was an artistic program in Czechoslovakia which belongs to the avant-garde; it has never spread abroad. It was invented by members of avant-garde association Devětsil, mainly Vítězslav Nezval and Karel Teige. It ...

, was leftist-oriented. After the war it proved to agitate Communist ideas. He had a strong influence on Czech modern theatre, and his innovative staging methods (work with metaphor, poetry, and symbols) and inventions (theatergraph, voiceband) are inspirational for the theatre even now.

References

External links