Four Czech Ladies and an American Student ****************************************************************************************** * Four Czech Ladies and an American Student ****************************************************************************************** Emma McCullough from the University of California, Santa Barbara is a scholarship holder o Commission. She is currently spending a research year at the Faculty of Arts of Charles Un Prague. The topic of her research is rather unique for a young American student– Emma is w thesis on four important ladies from Czech music history. Czech people would no doubt be familiar with the name of the first lady she writes about. Krásnohorská, the librettist of Bedřich Smetana, has after all a prominent life-size statu the most frequented places in Prague, Karlovo náměstí. But the name of the second lady wou unknown to many – except historians and music experts. Marie Červinková-Riegerová, daughte Ladislav Rieger and František Palacký’s granddaughter, was however an important member of in the second half of the 19th century. She also wrote librettos for Antonín Dvořák. The t ladies Emma is researching, Anežka Schulzová, was also a librettist – yet, the operas she for are no longer  part of the regular repertoire of opera houses. Quite the opposite can most famous text written by the last author belonging to the period of time Emma is intere Janáček’s Jenůfa / Její pastorkyňa is frequently played even today using the libretto deli by Gabriela Preissová. Emma, how does a young American girl start research on such a unique topic as Czech female the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century? I started graduate school knowing that I wanted to study Czech music, but I wasn't sure wh with it. During my first year of graduate school my advisor taught a class on Czech nation and suggested that I might look at Dvořák's Jakobín (The Jacobin). I really liked the oper fascinated when I realized that the librettist was a woman, Marie Červinková-Riegrová. The other time or place in history where women were so commonly engaged in writing libretti, s an interesting cultural moment to research. The better part of the books you need to work with as well as your resources  are written know any Czech before you decided on this topic? Was it difficult for you to learn it? You in Czech now; are you also able to speak it or do you have any difficulties? I was lucky to be able to take two years of Czech language classes in graduate school. It interesting arrangement, though. The teacher and the other students were all in a classroo and I was in a video studio in Santa Barbara. It was a little weird sometimes, but Czech c are quite rare, so I felt really lucky that I was able to study Czech at my own school. I come to the Czech Republic to do a summer language school in České Budějovice in the summe So, in terms of textbooks, my Czech is pretty good... but as I quickly discovered, the Cze the streets of Prague is nothing like the Czech you learn in a textbook. Particularly beca tends to be solitary, I feel like even though my reading skills are getting better, I am s self-conscious about my spoken Czech. Especially since I mostly read 19th-century document journals, the vocabulary I'm learning is pretty useless in social situations. It's a reall for me, but in a way that makes it even more rewarding when I see even small signs that my improving. You write about four rather different ladies. Do you have any favourites between them (and is your attention equally divided? One of my favorite things about my research so far is that I really feel like I've started these women through their letters and their works. They each have distinct personalities, think they have in common is that none of them were content to just sit at home and manage take care of the family (out of the 4 writers, only Gabriela Preissová had children). They aspirations and followed through with them, which I think is really brave. If I had to pick a favorite, I think I'd have to say Marie Červinkova-Riegrová, since she got me started on this project and the one I've done the most research on, so far. It is q to divide my attention evenly, since there is so much information on each of these women, Červinková and Krásnohorská. As much as I'd like them to receive equal treatment in my dissertation, I know at the end to do that because I'd wind up with a 600 page dissertation and I'd be in graduate school years... You run your research in several archives and libraries. Was it difficult for you as a for navigate between these institutions? As a foreigner and someone who is really just starting as a researcher, it is intimidating libraries and archives, but I've had so much help. My advisor, Professor Jarmila Gabrielov hudební vědy (Institute for Musicology) of Faculty of Arts, has been invaluable in suggest for my research, recommending sources, helping to facilitate access to the archives and th allowing me to sit in on her classes. I'm also really grateful to David Beveridge, another American Dvořák scholar who lives in Republic. He actually invited me to come to an archive with him when I arrived here, which out the system and get to know some of the archivists. Anežka Polášková, the librarian at the Institute for Musicology, has also been very patien really helpful in navigating the Charles University libraries. And, of course, I would not the Fulbright Commission, which awarded me this amazing opportunity, and particularly thei who have been incredible in facilitating my stay here and in answering lots of questions! There are also memorial places of some of the ladies you write about in Prague. Have you a visit some of them and do you have any favourites? It's exciting for me to be around Prague and to see monuments both to my ladies and to oth musical figures. I particularly love the statue of Eliška Krásnohorská on Karlovo náměstí. every week when I go to choir rehearsals nearby, and she just looks so calm and lovely. It refreshing to see her there smiling at me on weeks when my research feels overwhelming. A bit more indirectly, I live very near Riegrovy sady. There's a statue there of František Marie Červinková's father. Even though he isn't a main focus of my dissertation, he was a on Marie's life and actually helped Dvořák finish Jakobín after Marie's death in her 40s. on walks through the park and I always stop by the statue of Rieger. I like to hope he is blessing to dig through all of his letters!  How do you actually like the operas the librettists you research about texted? Have you ha to see some of them here in the Czech Republic or back at home or do you plan to? I love Czech operas. It can be so easy to get really bogged down in documents and books an the music. Particularly since Christmas I have been making a conscious effort to make sure something with the music every week, whether that is checking out scores from the library, operas on recording, or going to the opera to actually see them. I'm embarrassed that it took me so long, but I actually just went to the Národní divadlo f this week! I got to see Jakobín in the theater where it premiered about 120 years ago. I c to describe how special that was. I got goosebumps when I sat down and saw the inscription over the stage. Now that I've been once, I hope to go as often as I can. Particularly with tickets are so reasonably priced and you get to see singers who are world experts on this the venue for which it was composed. This was actually only my second time seeing a Czech opera live. American singers aren't t diction (how to pronounce the words), and most of them are intimidated by it, which is too is really a great language for singing, no more difficult to pronounce than German or Fren is, though, so very few Czech operas are in the repertoire in America. I have seen some signs that this is changing, though. Renée Fleming, a famous American sop great advocate for Czech and other less well-known repertoire, and it seems like American are starting to be more open to doing more Czech opera. Thank you for the interview.