Tuesday, September 23
Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin, Great Concert Hall, 8.00 p.m.

Secular vocal collection by Jan Dismas Zelenka

Musica Aeterna
Gabriela Eibenová, soprano
Lenka Cafourková, soprano
Peter Zajíček, artistic direction

Johann Adolph Hasse 
Sinfonia á quattro op. 5 no. 6 in G minor 
Allegro

Leonardo Vinci
Se mai turbo il tuo riposo, duet for 2 sopranos from the opera Alessandro nell'Indie 

Johann Adolph Hasse
Lo sposo va á morte, aria from the opera Cajo Fabricio

Giuseppe Porsile 
Sinfonia in D major no.1

Nicola Porpora
E puoi, crudel, duet for 2 sopranos from the opera Annibale

Antonio Vivaldi 
Sinfonia from the opera Il Farnace

Giuseppe Sellitto 
Deh t´accheta e non negarmi, duet for 2 sopranos

Giovanni Porta 
Sinfonia in D major

Antonio Vivaldi
Anch´il mar par che sommerga, aria from the opera Il Bajazet

Nicola Porpora  
Se viver non possio, duet for 2 sopranos

The ensemble Musica Aeterna was founded in 1973 by Professor Ján Albrecht. Its repertoire spans European music from the early 17th century through the Classical period, and also includes rediscovered works by Slovak composers, presented both in concert and on recordings. Since 1989, the ensemble has performed on original instruments from the 17th and 18th centuries or their replicas. The ensemble's artistic director and leader is Peter Zajíček. Musica Aeterna has maintained successful collaborations with the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles for several years, as well as with many other international partners, including the Festival van Vlaanderen, Holland Festival of Early Music Utrecht, Festival Wiener Klassik, Carinthischer Sommer Villach, Days of Early Music Sopron, International Early Music Festival Prague, Bach Tage Berlin, and the Swedish Baroque Festival in Malmö, among others. Distinguished conductors and soloists—renowned specialists in the field of Early Music—regularly perform with Musica Aeterna Bratislava, including: Alfredo Bernardini, Christophe Coin, Paul Colléaux, Richard Fuller, Enrico Gatti, Martin Gester, Paul Goodwin, Edward Higginbottom, John Holloway, Jan Kleinbussink, Catherine Mackintosh, Charles Medlam, Siegfried Pank, Andrew Parrott, Christophe Rousset, Olivier Schneebeli, Simon Standage, Melvyn Tan, and John Toll. Many of the ensemble’s more than fifteen CD recordings have received prestigious international awards—most notably the Diapason d’Or in 1994, 1995, and 2002 for the complete Concerti Grossi by Georg Muffat. International critics have consistently praised the artistic excellence and musicianship of Musica Aeterna, recognizing it as one of Europe's leading early music ensembles.

After graduating from the Prague Conservatory, and completing private studies in London as well as academic studies in Music Theory and Historical Performance at Masaryk University and the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno, Gabriela Eibenová has primarily focused on the performance and interpretation of early music. She has performed with renowned artists such as Eduardo Lopez Banzo, Ian Partridge, Simon Standage, La Fenice, Evelyn Tubb, Magdalena Kožená, Hana Blažíková, Peter Kooij, Carlos Mena, Roberta Mameli, Makoto Sakurada, Terry Way, Cyril Auvity, Filippo Mineccia, and many others. She has sung several title roles in Baroque operas both in the Czech Republic and abroad, including: J. Blow – Venus and Adonis, J. M. Leclair – Scylla et Glaucus,  C. Monteverdi – Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, H. Purcell – Dido and Aeneas. In 2000, she co-founded the early music ensemble Ensemble Inégal with Adam Viktora, with a particular focus on the life and work of Czech Baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka. She regularly performs at prestigious music festivals throughout Europe, as well as in Lebanon, Israel, and Japan. As a guest artist, she has collaborated with numerous early music ensembles and orchestras, including Musica Aeterna, the Czech Philharmonic, the Pilsen Philharmonic, the Prague State Opera, and the Pilsen Theatre, among others. Gabriela Eibenová has recorded more than 40 CDs and frequently appears on radio and television. She has performed for Pope John Paul II, the Dalai Lama, and many high-ranking European officials. In 2020, she founded her own music festival, Rosa Bohemica.

Lenka Cafourková Ďuricová studied classical singing at the Brno Conservatory under Petr Julíček and continued her education at the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts under the guidance of Natália Romanová-Achaladze. She also participated in masterclasses with distinguished opera singers such as Peter Dvorský, Gabriela Beňačková, and Regina Renzowa Jürgens. She is a laureate of the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation Interpretation Competition. Her operatic roles include Mařenka (The Bartered Bride), Vendulka (The Kiss), La Folie (Platée), and Zerlina (Don Giovanni), performing alongside artists such as Adam Plachetka and Kateřina Kněžíková. Her concert career is equally rich; she has performed with the Brno Philharmonic, North Czech Philharmonic, and the philharmonic orchestras of Hradec Králové, Olomouc, Prague (FOK), among others. A sought-after interpreter of early music, she regularly collaborates with ensembles such as Ensemble Inégal, Czech Ensemble Baroque, and Collegium 1704 — both in the Czech Republic and internationally — and has recorded several CDs with them. Her artistic achievements include a concert tour in China and a solo debut at the Prague Spring Festival in 2017. Since 2019, she has been teaching solo singing at the Brno Conservatory.

Peter Zajíček studied violin at the Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts (VŠMU) in Bratislava, and has participated in several masterclasses focused on the interpretation of early music. He is the artistic director and concertmaster of the ensemble Musica Aeterna, with which he has performed extensively across Europe and overseas, and has produced a number of acclaimed CD recordings, several of which have received prestigious international awards. He is also the president of the Centre for Early Music, under whose leadership the international festival Days of Early Music in Bratislava was established and has become a respected and long-standing tradition. Peter Zajíček teaches at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and Comenius University, and has also lectured at the Ecclesiastical Conservatory in Bratislava. He is deeply engaged in musicological research, which he presents through his concert projects, recordings, and lectures held in cities such as Bratislava, Paris, Nuremberg, Vienna, Münster, Granada, Prague, Brno, Katowice, and Buenos Aires. He has collaborated with the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles and the Baroque dance company L’Éventail. As a soloist and artistic director of Musica Aeterna, he has worked with nearly all of the leading interpreters of early music, and has also led ensembles as a guest conductor in the USA, France, Austria, Prague, and elsewhere. In 1997, he co-founded the music association Albrecht Collegium, and in 1999 founded the ensemble Miméza, later transformed into the Festival Orchestra Apollo. He is the author of the first Slovak-language publications on the interpretation of 17th- and 18th-century violin music. In recent years, he has remained active as concertmaster and lecturer in the field of early music. In 2017, the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic awarded him the Prize of the Minister of Culture for the year 2016.