Karel Pippich

Karel Pippich in 1901

Karel Pippich (21 April 1849 in Zlonice – 29 March 1921 in Chrudim) was a Czech lawyer, Sokol organizer and writer.

Works

• Vlasty skon: Dramatická báseň o třech jednáních, určená pro drama (1885) - this drama, "The Death of Vlasta", is connected to the myths of Vlasta, Libuše's handmaid and Šárka, the mythical warrior-maiden of Bohemia, a character in The Maidens' War. The drama was first offered as the basis of an opera to Dvořák, who initially showed interest but later turned it down, and Pippich offered it to a pupil of Fibich, Otakar Ostrčil who created the opera The Death of Vlasta in 1903.^[1][2][3]

References

1. Karl Heinrich Wörner History of music: a book for study and reference 1973 "He wrote five operas: Vlasty skon, or Vlasti's Death, to a text by Karel Pippich (Prague 1904) [sic] ... The first opera, Vlasta's Death, which grew out of the national mythic soil, reveals Ostrcil's close study of Fibich."
2. John Clapham Dvořák 1979 "He turned down Pippich's text 'The Death of Vlasta', but when routing around the archives of the National Theatre he came across something much more attractive. This was Hostinsky's libretto "
3. Otakar Dvořák, Antonín Dvořák, my father Paul J. Polansky - 1993"Dr. Pippich from Chrudim offered my father the text Vlasty Skon (Vlasta's End). Father liked this very much and decided to ask Dr. Pippich for some corrections for a composition. At the same time Otakar Ostrcil was already working on "