* Case cracked, split Opera "In the Well" by Vilém Blodek, performed by the Prague National Theatre Orchestra. Blodek was born into a poor family and educated at the German Piarist school in Prague. He studied with Alexander Dreyschock (piano) and Antonín Eiser (flute) and Johann Friedrich Kittl (composition) at the Prague Conservatory (1846–52), after which he became a music teacher in Lubycza, Galicia (1853–5). Returning to Prague, he worked as a concert pianist and music teacher, and briefly as the second conductor of the Prague Männergesangverein, writing many patriotic choruses. In 1860, he succeeded Antonín Eiser as professor of flute at the Conservatory, and wrote his own flute tutor (1861) as a basis for education. He was active as a writer of incidental music for German and Czech theaters. From 1858, he wrote music for 60 plays, and collaborated with Bedřich Smetana on the music for the tableaux of the Shakespeare celebrations in 1864. In 1865, he married Marie Daubeková, whom he had previously taught. In 1870, he became mentally ill, attributed to overwork, and spent four years in a mental hospital. Synopsis: On the eve of midsummer, according to the folk tradition that a girl who looks into a well sees the face of her true bridegroom, Lidunka consults the village sorcerer, Verna, wishing to see the face of her beloved Vojtech, and not the old Janek, the wealthy favorite of her mother. Both suitors climb a tree to ensure she sees their reflection, but Janek falls into the well just before she arrives, and his face emerges from the water. Eventually, everything is resolved, and Lidunka marries Vojtech. - Title: In the Well - Composer: Vilém Blodek - Performer: Prague National Theatre Orchestra - Conductor: Jan Stych - Chorus: Kühn Mixed Choir - Libretto: Karel Sabina - Opera Form: Comic Opera - Recording Format: Stereo Thank you for viewing.