Jaroslav Kvapil
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Jaroslav Kvapil (25 September 1868 in Chudenice, Kingdom of Bohemia – 10 January 1950 in Prague) was a Czech poet, theatre director, translator, playwright, and librettist. From 1900 he was a director and Dramaturg at the National Theatre in Prague, where he introduced plays by Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen and Maxim Gorky into the repertory. Later he was a director at the Vinohrady Theatre (1921–1928). He wrote six plays, but is today chiefly remembered as the librettist of Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka.[1]
Kvapil was the principal author of the Manifesto of Czech writers of 1917, signed by over two hundred leading Czechs, favouring the concept of Czech self-government.[2]
He was a prominent freemason, from 1923 to 1924 he was first Grand Master of the National Grand Lodge of Czechoslovakia.[3] He was married to actress Hana Kvapilová from 1894 until her death in 1907.
References
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- ^ The Metropolitan Opera Stories of the Great Operas By John W. Freeman, Metropolitan Opera (New York, N.Y.), pg 127
- ^ J. Poláček, Manifest českých spisovatelů (2007)
- ^ "Seznam Velmistrů VLČR – VELIKÁ LÓŽE ČESKÉ REPUBLIKY | GRAND LODGE OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC" (in Czech). Veliká lóže České republiky. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
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- 1868 births
- 1950 deaths
- People from Klatovy District
- Czechoslovak National Democracy politicians
- Members of the Revolutionary National Assembly of Czechoslovakia
- 20th-century Czech dramatists and playwrights
- Czech male dramatists and playwrights
- Czech male poets
- Czech opera librettists
- Czech Freemasons
- Recipients of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
- 19th-century Czech dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century Czech poets
- 20th-century male writers
- Translators from Norwegian
- People from Austria-Hungary
- Czech writer stubs