Jaroslav Kvapil

This article is about the Czech poet, playwright, and librettist. For the Czech composer, conductor, and pianist, see Jaroslav Kvapil (composer).
Jaroslav Kvapil
Signature of Jaroslav Kvapil (1932)

Jaroslav Kvapil (25 September 1868 in Chudenice, Kingdom of Bohemia – 10 January 1950 in Prague) was a Czech poet, theatre director, translator, playwright, and librettist. From 1900 he was a director and Dramaturg at the National Theatre in Prague, where he introduced plays by Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen and Maxim Gorky into the repertory. Later he was a director at the Vinohrady Theatre (1921–1928). He wrote six plays, but is today chiefly remembered as the librettist of Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka.[1]

Kvapil was the principal author of the Manifesto of Czech writers of 1917, signed by over two hundred leading Czechs, favouring the concept of Czech self-government.[2]

He was a prominent freemason, from 1923 to 1924 he was first Grand Master of the National Grand Lodge of Czechoslovakia.[3] He was married to actress Hana Kvapilová from 1894 until her death in 1907.

  1. ^ The Metropolitan Opera Stories of the Great Operas By John W. Freeman, Metropolitan Opera (New York, N.Y.), pg 127
  2. ^ J. Poláček, Manifest českých spisovatelů (2007)
  3. ^ "Seznam Velmistrů VLČR – VELIKÁ LÓŽE ČESKÉ REPUBLIKY | GRAND LODGE OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC" (in Czech). Veliká lóže České republiky. Retrieved 21 September 2023.