The ‘Il Boemo’ Trailer: A Sumptuous Period Piece About One of the Most Sought-After Opera Composers of His Time (EXCLUSIVE)

Liza Foreman
·1 min read
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He died alone and abandoned, and today few people know his name, but in the second half of the 18th century Josef Mysliveček (1737-1781), the son of a Czech miller, broke family ties, and left Prague for Venice to become one of the go-to composers of opera of his time.

The award-winning Czech director Petr Václav (“The Way Out”) has created a sumptuous period piece, rich in costume and the sounds of live music recorded for the film by the Czech ensemble Collegium 1704. Not to mention performances by real-life opera stars.

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Soloists from the music world include French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, Hungarian soprano Emöke Baráth, Italian soprano Raffaella Milanesi, Slovak soprano Simona Šaturová, and opera singers Juan Sancho, Krystian Adam, and Sophie Harmsen.

Václav began working in the film in 2010 when he spent a year-and-a-half going through the archives to uncover his late countryman’s rise and fall.

In the trailer, shared in exclusivity with Variety, as in the film, you can see Václav’s love of the costumes, furniture and music of the era. DPs Diego Romero and Suarez Llanos bring Václav’s script, and Andrea Cavalletto’s costumes, to life, through the Italian cities where Mysliveček made his name, from Venice to Naples where the largest part of his work was performed.

Adding to the drama of a man whose love for a noble woman was channeled into his music, there are even romping scenes in full costume.

The trailer comes ahead of the film’s world premiere on Sept. 19 in the main competition at the San Sebastián Film Festival.

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