KAPR CODE : SPECIAL SCREENING OF DOCUMENTARY OPERA + CONCERT OF KAPR'S WORK
LIFE AS A COMPOSITION IN DOCUMENTARY OPERA
SCREENING
The documentary opera Kapr Code explores the ambivalent story of the progressive composer, experimentalist and prominent Communist Jan Kapr (1914-1988) who has almost been erased from official memory. In the 1950s, he became so renowned for his propaganda music that he received one of the highest accolades of the Eastern Bloc at the time – the Stalin Prize. He returned the award in reaction to the invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. Subsequently, performances of his works were perpetually banned. Kapr then devoted his time to making Super 8 mm films, consisting either of footage documenting his own life or of idiosyncratic, fictional films. These never-before published materials come to life in a playful reconstruction of life after death where film and historical memory and Kapr’s music interweave to create a narrative whose dimensions are almost mythological.
CONCERT
JAN KAPR
Sonata for dulcimer (1968)
Daniel Skála - dulcimer
Test I from the cycle Testimonianze for solo bass clarinet (1969)
Petr Valášek - bass clarinet
FILM: KAPR CODE / KaprKód
91 minutes, English subtitles
Director and Screenplay: Lucie Králová
Libretto: Jiří Adámek
Music: Jan Kapr a Petra Šuško
Singers: Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno, choirmaster: Petr Fiala, soloist: Karel Jakubů
Sound: Michal Gábor, Petr Šoupa, Richard Müller
Sound mix: Petr Šoupa
Sound design: Richard Müller
Cut: Adam Brothánek
Camera: Tomáš Stanek, Adam Oĺha, Petr Příkaský, Jakub Halousek
Dramaturgy: Jan Gogola ml.
Producents: Andrea Shaffer / Mindset Pictures, Martin Řezníček / DOCUfilm Praha
Co-producers: Zuza Piussi a Vít Janeček / VIRUSfilm, Helena Uldrichová / Česká televize, Michal Křeček /MagicLab
Supported by: The Czech Film Fund, Slovak Audiovisual Fund, South Moravian Film Fund