Juraj Filas. In Memoriam

OperaWire and many other news outlets report the death of the Czech (born in Slovakia, but developed his career mainly in Czechia) composer Juraj Filas (1955-2021) due to COVID-19 infection complications. He is considered one of the most important contemporary Czech composers.

In 2010, he entered the opera writers' competition The Key to the Future at the 2018 Bartók Plus Opera Festival in Miskolc with a new composition: a four-act Jane Eyre opera. He was a finalist in the contest. Regrettably, as far as we know, there is no complete recording of the opera. A couple of arias, though, in a soprano and piano version can be seen on YouTube in a 2014 performance:

soprano - Terezie Švarcová
piano - Juraj Filas
sound engineer, mix, camera operator, edit - Ondřej Urban

recorded on 16th June 2014 in Sound Studio HAMU, Prague, Czech Republic.