Emil František Burian

Emil František Burian ( born June 11, 1904 in Pilsen, † August 9, 1959 in Prague) was a Czech composer, poet, journalist, singer, actor, musician, playwright, director and dramaturge.

Life and work

Burian was at the Prague Conservatory as a pupil of Josef Bohuslav Foerster. His father was the baritone Emil Burian, his uncle, the tenor Karel Burian, who became known as a Wagner singer. His son Jan Burian ( born 1952 in Prague) is a well known in the Czech Republic songwriter.

He was a member of the club of modern culture Devětsil. 1926 to 1927 he worked in the " Liberated Theatre " ( Osvobozené Divadlo ), which he left after disputes with Jindřich Honzl together with Jiří Frejka and a private Dada theater, Divadlo Da-Da founded. He also worked with the Playhouse Modern Studio ( Moderní studio).

In 1923 he joined the Communist Party Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - out of conviction that also influenced his later work greatly. In 1927 he founded the musical theater group recitative voice band.

In addition, he founded the avant-garde theater 1933 D 34 ( the number in the name changed after each of the current year) in Prague, which he directed until 1940 and again from 1946 until his death.

Between 1940 and 1945 he was in the concentration camp Theresienstadt, later imprisoned in Dachau and finally in Neuengamme. In his spare time he devoted himself to illegally organizing cultural events for the detainees. On May 3, 1945, he was able to escape in dramatic circumstances after the raid by the Royal Air Force from the ship Cap Arcona.

After the war he founded the theater D 46 again. Besides these three theaters, he led three stages in Brno, and the operetta Karlin in Prague, in the so-called cooperative of theater work ( Družstvo divadla práce ) combined. After the seizure of power in Czechoslovakia by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1948 he became a member of parliament of the "National Assembly of February 1948 " ( " Poúnorové národní shromáždění ").

In 1951 he transferred the theater D 51 in the Association of Czechoslovak army. It later became the Art Theatre of the army, which earned him the rank of an officer. In 1955 he left the army and the theater was renamed after the founding year in D 34. To Burian students belonged to the artist Christo.

Burian composed six operas, five ballets, a symphony, a song cycle for voice and jazz band, jazz band and a requiem for voiceband, a cantata, chamber music, drama, radio play and film music.

He was married to actress Zuzana Kočová.