Zítek, Otakar

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Zítek, Otakar

Zítek, Otakar, Czech music critic and composer; b. Prague, Nov. 5, 1892; d. Bratislava, April 28, 1955. He studied composition with Novak at the Prague Cons, and musicology with Guido Adler and Grädener at the Univ. of Vienna. Upon graduation, he wrote music criticism for the Hudebni Revue and the Lidové Noviny in Prague; gave lectures on opera at the Prague Cons.; then was administrator at the National Theater in Brno (1921-29); taught at the Brno Cons. (1931-39). From 1939 to 1941 he was in the Buchenwald concentration camp, but was released, and worked as a theater director in Plzeñ (1941-43); supervised opera theaters in Prague and Brno (1946-49). He composed the operas Vznesene srdce (The Exalted Heart; 1918) and Pad Petra Králence (The Downfall of Peter Kralence; Brno, March 23,1923), a ballet after Wilde’s Birthday of the Infanta (Plzeñ [Pilsen], 1942), Mesto, symphonic poem (1925), songs, etc. He publ. O novou zpevohru (On New Opera; Prague, 1920).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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