NeoKlasik Orchestra | What Men Live By

Monday 12 October 2026, 20:00
Church of St Martin in the Wall Martinská 417/6, Prague, CZ

Bohuslav MARTINŮ: Lady’s Shoe, H 239
Live musical accompaniment to the documentary film Lady’s Shoe

Bohuslav MARTINŮ: What Men Live By, H 336
Pastoral opera in one act – first performance in a sacred space in the Czech Republic.

NeoKlasik Orchestra

What Men Live By? A concert marking the 150th anniversary of Tomáš Baťa's birth

The concert takes its title from Bohuslav Martinů’s opera inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s story Where Love Is, There God Is Also, about a humble shoemaker. With this project, we wish to symbolically mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Tomáš Baťa and highlight the creative connection between this leading Czech composer and the visionary entrepreneur and his company.

The evening opens with Lady’s Shoe, a live musical accompaniment to the documentary and promotional film. Martinů wrote this music for a modern advertisement, and it illustrates just how significant his collaboration with the forward‑thinking world of the Baťa factories was.

The highlight of the concert will be a performance of the one‑act pastoral opera What Men Live By. The combination of these two works will be heard for the very first time at the Evangelical Church in Prague. The choice of opera is no coincidence – its plot features a main character named Martin, whose saintly namesake is the patron saint of the poor and of many artisans. Similarly Martin, the poor shoemaker from Bohuslav Martinů’s opera, finds Christ through his selfless help to people in need.

The story carries a moral message closely aligned with Tomáš Baťa’s values, rooted in honest work and small acts of service to others. The Gothic space of the church deepens the work’s central theme: that through love for one’s neighbour and conscientious everyday labour, a person may come to a direct encounter with God.

More information: https://neoklasikorchestr.cz/neosezona-2024/bata/