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Vojtěch Dyk stars in Petr Vaclav’s epic biographical film about Josef Mysliveček, the most celebrated Czech composer of the 18th century. Contrary to his family’s expectations, this son of a Prague miller embarked on a journey to Italy, to the very heart of the world of opera, in search of his dream. Unlike so many others, succeeded in making his mark there and enjoying a stellar career in the second half of the 18th century.
So, who was Josef Mysliveček? How is it possible that he so quickly managed to enrapture the audiences of the most important opera stages in Italy? He captured the attention of the most famous performers, the impresarios, and even monarchs themselves. In doing so, become one of the most sought-after composers of that time. How is it possible that he disappeared from the collective memory just as quickly? The film attempts to answer some of these questions and, above all, to commemorate this Czech musical great, about whom little information has been preserved to this day. The music of Josef Mysliveček itself is therefore key to the narrative. Thanks to this music, the creators have been able to at least put together a few pieces of the puzzle in the world of one of the most celebrated Czech composers of all ages. The very best Baroque musicians of our own time, led by Václav Luks and Collegium 1704, have come together to provide the audience with the perfect musical experience. Realia from Mysliveček’s world, costumes, make-up, and sets, all detailed to perfection, transport the audience to Venice, Naples, and other Italian cities of the age, as does Vojtěch Dyk’s authentic performance – in Italian – in the main role.
Detailed preparations also played a fundamental role in the making of the film. Petr Vaclav worked with leading experts on the life and works of Josef Mysliveček, such as American musicologist Daniel E. Freeman and Czech musical historian Stanislav Bohadlo. The conductor and founder of top Baroque orchestra Collegium 1704 Václav Luks, meanwhile, had a decisive influence on the musical aspect of the film. Some of the world's leading operatic soloists, such as Philippe Jaroussky, Simona Šaturová, Raffaella Milanesi, Emőke Baráth, and Krystian Adam, perform Mysliveček's operatic arias in the film with authenticity and to perfection. The script for the film was written in large part thanks to a grant from the French government, which awarded Petr Vaclav a prestigious Prix de Rome, including a scholarship at Villa Medici in Rome. The filmmaker was therefore able to spend a year in Italy, where he searched all references to Josef Mysliveček in the archives and accurately mapped out the places he stayed on the Apennine Peninsula. He was then able to put what he had learned to good use when making a documentary about Josef Mysliveček, Zpověď zapomenutého (Confession of the Vanished).
One of the most celebrated singers of her age, the brightest star in the heavens of European opera. A soprano whose voice enraptured Italian audiences and led her to secure long-term engagements in Vienna, London, and St. Petersburg. An independent artist and woman admired by those around her for her independent and free-spirited way of life, she worked her way up to the very top of the opera world in spite of having come from a poor background, her nickname of La Cochetta – Little Cook – referring to Caterina's father's profession. She was paid staggering fees for her performances, incomparable to the incomes of even the most sought-after composers, including Josef Mysliveček. And yet society of that time looked down on her, something that was not helped by the fact that she never married and gave birth to a daughter whose father was unknown at the age of almost fifty.
She frequently performed in Josef Mysliveček's operas, which caused people to speculate about the nature of their relationship. However, no documentary evidence exists to confirm that they were romantically involved.
Also ruled in parallel as Ferdinand III of the Kingdom of Sicily andlater Ferdinand I King of the Two Sicilies.
A member of the Bourbon line, his parents and older brother left him alone in Naples at the age of only eight and moved to Spain, where his father took the Spanish throne as Charles III. Little Ferdinand roamed the streets of Naples with his peers. It is said that his tutors deliberately tried to prevent him from gaining an education so that they would be able to control him better later on. The regency council initially ruled on his behalf, and Ferdinand took power himself in 1767. He embarrassed his court many times with his eccentric behaviour. Yet in spite of this, he was able to maintain control of both the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily until his death in 1825, with a few short breaks along the way.
His marriage to the daughter of Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, Maria Carolina, was not a happy one, but did produce a great many descendants. Ferdinand IV was thus the founder of the Cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, which ruled Naples and Sicily until those territories became part of unified Italy in 1861.
Ferdinand IV commissioned many works from composers, including Mysliveček.
Leopold Mozart was initially much closer to Mysliveček than his young son. He washimself a good musician who composed music and taught it tohis children Wolfgang and Maria Anna. He set out a path in life for both ofthem at a very early age and made sure that neither of them deviated from it.
The complicated relationship that young Amadeus hadwith him is evidenced by the extensive correspondence that has survived to thisday, from which we can also learn many details about their relationship withJosef Mysliveček. Wolfgang survived his father by only four years.
The wider public became aware of Josef Mysliveček thanks to a romanetto written by nineteenth-century Czech author Jakub Arbes, who gave Mysliveček the nickname “Il divino Boemo” (The Divine Czech) and similarly distorted many other facts about the musician's life. The perception of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is similar in this respect, most of the lay public drawing information about his life from Miloš Forman’s acclaimed film Amadeus, which is, of course, based on a play by Peter Shaffer, who was entirely aware of deviating from historical fact. The truth is, however, that the lives lived by Mozart and Mysliveček followed paths that crossed each other on many an occasion.
The correspondence still in existence to this day tells us of a number of meetings. Mysliveček and Mozart met for the first time in Bologna in 1770, and for the last time in Munich in 1777. To begin, theirs was a very friendly relationship, the young Mozart admired Mysliveček and was grateful for the experience that the older artist was passing on to him about music composition. Mysliveček even tried to use his contacts to secure a commission for Mozart in Italy, but did not succeed, which is one of the reasons for the later cooling of relations with Wolfgang's father, Leopold.
A comparison between Mysliveček and Mozart in terms of recognition is inescapable. The Czech, a generation older, achieved stellar success in his own lifetime and although the young Mozart later attempted to do the same, he never managed to break through on any of the opera stages of Italy. Their fates after death were almost entirely the opposite, only this time the other way round. While Mozart became one of the world's most respected composers after his death, Mysliveček was almost completely forgotten for more than two centuries.
Petr Vaclav is a graduate of the Film and TV School at the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague. He was nominated for a student Oscar for his film Paní Le Murie (Madame Le Murie), which won the Grand Prix for Documentary Film at the Munich International Festival of Film Schools. His feature debut, Marian, won a number of awards abroad in 1996, including a Silver Leopard at the International Film Festival in Locarno, and prizes for direction in Angers, Belfort, Tehran, and Bratislava. He was also nominated for a Czech Lion award.
His next film, Paralelní světy (Parallel Worlds), was a finalist in the NHK Award — Sundance scriptwriting competition and was screened as part of the competition section at the festival in San Sebastian. His film Cesta ven (The Way Out) was screened in the ACID section at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014 and became the first Czech film to premiere at this most prestigious of film festivals in 23 years. It was awarded seven Czech Lions, including Best Film, Best Screenplay, and Best Director.
The drama Nikdy nejsme sami (We Are Never Alone) (2016)won the Tagesspiegel Award at the Berlinale Festival and the prize for artisticcontribution at the Cairo International Film Festival. The documentary Zpověďzapomenutého (Confession of the Vanished) then won the Fipa d'orAward at the Biarritz Festival. Vaclav’s most recent work to date, Skokan(The Jumper), arrived in Czech cinemas in June 2017.
Vojtěch Dyk is a Czech actor and musician whostudied at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU) inPrague, specialising in drama. He performed on the boards of the National Theatre for the first time playing the main role in the classical play Radúz and Mahulena (directed by JanAntonín Pitínský).
His work at the Divadlo v Dlouhé theatre and the La Fabrika Theatre also earned him considerable praise. He became better known to the public after appearing in the television series Letiště (Airport), Velmi křehké vztahy (Very Fragile Relations), and Pan profesor (Mr. Professor) and in the films Ženy v pokušení (Women in Temptation) by Jiří Vejdělek and Tři bratři (Three Brothers) by Jan Svěrák. Both films are among the most successful Czech films of recent few years. The critically acclaimed Zpráva o záchraně mrtvého (Saving One Who WasDead), a film directed by Václav Kadrnka, opened in cinemas in 2022.
Musicfans know Vojtěch Dyk as the frontman of Nightwork and, in recent years, for his own project, where he performs with B-Side Band from Brno.
Spanish cinematographer Diego Romero has made feature and documentary films in a number of countries and has worked with director Roberto Minervini for many years. Their film The Other Side (2015) impressed audiences of the Un Certain Regard competition section at the festival in Cannes, while the film What You Gonna Do When the World Is On Fire (2018) won four awards at the festival in Venice.
Jan Macola joined Barrandov Studio in 2006 after studying international relations at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University. There he worked as Marketing Manager until 2011, and during his final two years as Head of Development and Coproduction. This gave him a chance to acquaint himself with the practice of Czech and international film financing in detail. In 2012, Jan Macola founded his own Mimesis Film production company.
His first production, Cesta ven (The Way Out), was made in cooperation with director Petr Vaclav. It was screened in the ACID section at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to win a number of awards, including seven Czech Lions, among them Best Film, presented to the producer of the film. Their next film together was the drama Nikdy nejsme sami (We Are Never Alone). The film was selected for the Berlinale Festival, where it won the audience award for Best Film in the Forum section.
In addition to feature films, Jan Macola also makes documentaries, winning a Czech Lion for Normální autistický film (Normal Autistic Film) together with director Miroslav Janek in 2017. His other documentary productions are Na Sever (Into the North), Zpověď zapomenutého (Confession of the Vanished), V Mosulu (Inside Mosul), and Nebe (Heaven). In 2016, Jan Macola and his wife Alžběta reconstructed and reopened the Kino Pilotů cinema in Prague-Vršovice and founded the Pilot Film distribution company.
Jan Macola is a member of the Czech Film and Television Academy and the international association ACE Producers.
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Václav Luks is the founder of the Prague Baroque orchestra Collegium 1704 and studied at the Schole Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. He has been deeply involved in the renaissance of interest in the works of Czech composers Jan Dismas Zelenka and Josef Mysliveček. Collegium 1704, meanwhile, quickly established itself as one of the leading world orchestras dedicated to the interpretation of 17th and 18th century music.
The ensemble regularly guests at prestigious European festivals such as Salzburger Festspiele, Bachfest Leipzig, Chopin Festival Warsaw, Lucerne Festival, Oude Muziek Utrecht, and Handel-Festspiele Halle, and performs at prominent concert and opera houses — Opéra Royal de Versailles, Wiener Konzerthaus, Berliner Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, BOZAR in Brussels, and elsewhere.
Between 2009 and 2018, Václav Luks and Collegium 1704 were involved in 4 European opera projects — Handel's opera Rinaldo (2009—2014 National Theatre Prague, Versailles, Caen, Rennes, Luxembourg), the modern premiere of Mysliveček's opera L'Olimpiade (2013—14, National Theatre Prague, Caen, Dijon, Luxembourg), which was nominated for the International Opera Awards, the modern premiere of Vivaldi's opera Arsilda (2017—2019 Slovak National Theatre Bratislava, Versailles, Caen, Lille, Luxembourg), and a production of Handel's opera Alcina (2022, Slovak National Theatre Bratislava, Versailles, Caen). Václav Luks and Collegium 1704 were resident artists at Opéra Royal & Chapelle Royale de Versaille during the 2018-21 seasons.
It was also under his direction that Collegium 1704 performed Mysliveček's oratorio La passione di Gesù Cristo (2012, Prague Spring 2013) and recorded an album of the composer's violin concerts together with Leila Schayegh. Opera stars such as Vivica Genaux, Véronique Gens, Max Emanuel Cenčić, and Franco Fagioli have all sung Mysliveček's music at concerts played by Collegium 1704.
"A key event in Mysliveček's career was the performance of his first opera, written for Teatro San Carlo in Naples. It is not clear how the little-known composer received an exclusive commission to compose an opera to mark the birthday of Spanish King Charles III, father of King Ferdinand I of the Kingdom of Naples, but the triumphant success of the premiere on 20 January 1767 opened the door to Mysliveček to the most radiant European hub of opera."
(Harmonie magazin, July 2013)
including those where Josef Mysliveček really lived
The theatre scenes shot for the film are of particular note as they were among the most complicated.
Theatre in Como (Italy)
All musical performances and shots on stage were filmed here in the summer of 2019, meaning one year ahead of all the other scenes.
The Estates Theatre (Stavovské divadlo) in Prague
Perhaps even trickier in terms of filming was shooting at the Estates Theatre in Prague, where Miloš Forman’s Amadeus was filmed in 1982 and two of Mozart operas were premiered: Don Giovanni and La clemenza di Tito. Josef Mysliveček never actually worked at the Estates Theatre, and indeed could not have, as it was completed and opened only after his death, but some scenes for Il Boemo were transferred here from the sites originally selected in Italy because they were unavailable for use on account of the COVID-19 epidemic. The epidemic meant that the theatre could only be filmed when empty, i.e. at night, after the evening performance and before work at the theatre began again in the morning.
Mahen Theatre (Mahenovo divadlo) in Brno
Transferring the shoot to the Estates Theatre brought one more complication. The San Carlo Theatre in Naples, where the most famous productions of Mysliveček's operas were staged, has the Royal Box in the centre of the auditorium, while the Estates Theatre has the Royal Box at the side, just next to the stage. To make sure that King Ferdinand IV was seated in exactly the right place, the scenes from his box had to be filmed at Mahen Theatre in Brno.
Palazzo Negrone in Genoa
The palace belongs to the Negrone family, which has been based in Genoa since 1030. The resemblance between the family name and the Negroni cocktail (gin/sweet vermouth and bitter) is not entirely coincidental: the cocktail was created in 1919 by a member of the family, Camillo Negrone.
Palazzo Doria in Genoa
A beautiful medieval Italian palace in the historic centre of Genoa, a magnificent residence in the very heart of the former Republic of Genoa.
Villa Gavoti in Albisola on the shores of the Ligurian Sea
A place of great history, a residence of two popes.
Villa Wirtz in Palermo
A beautiful historic villa on the island of Sicily.
Canals in Venice
Even Covid measures had a few positives – the crew was able to shoot on the canals of Venice with nobody around. At the same time, incidentally, Tom Cruise was here with the crew of the next film in the Mission Impossible series.
Castellodi Thiene near Vicenza
Originally a Gothic castle which came more to resemble a Venetian palace during later reconstruction.
Il Boemo was also filmed in Naples, where Josef Mysliveček experienced his greatest moments of glory, and in Rome, where he died in poverty and oblivion. It was also here, quite symbolically, that shooting of the film came to an end.
Doksany Monastery
Scenes were filmed in the Baroque surroundings of the monastery, close to Litoměřice.
Martinic palace
A richly decorated Renaissance palace on Hradčany Square in Prague.
Charles Bridge in Prague
Josef Mysliveček was probably born close to Charles’ Bridge on the banks of the River Vltava, in Sovovy mlýny (Sova Mills), his family having owned the mills at one time, along with Kutilův mlýn (Kutil Mill), which stood in today’s location of Novotného Lávka (Novotný Footbridge).
Footbridge
Today's Novotného Lávka (Novotný Footbridge) near the Old Town end of Charles’ Bridge.
Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace
A Baroque Palace in Prague's Karlova Street.
Chateau Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou
A Baroque chateau complex in which opera productions have a great tradition – located to the west of Brno.
Chateau Bučovice
A unique, well-preserved example of Italian Renaissance architecture situated to the east of Brno.
If you are interested in following in the footsteps of Josef Mysliveček, we recommend taking a thematic trail that we have prepared for you in cooperation with Prague City Tourism. You will find details of the route here.
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