Václav Kašlík

Václav Kášlík (September 28, 1917, Políčna – June 4, 1989, Prague) was a Czech conductor, music and opera composer and opera director.
In 1936 he graduated from the Real Gymnasium in Valášské Mezíříčy, and from 1930 to 1940 he studied at the Prague Conservatory. He studied conducting with M. Doležil and P. Dedeček, and composition with R. Karel and Alois Haba. At the Conservatory's Master School he was a student of Václav Talích from 1939 to 1942. He studied opera directing with Ferdinand Puiman. Simultaneously with the Conservatory, he studied musicology and aesthetics at the Charles University in Prague from 1936 to 1939.

In 1940–1941 he was a conductor at the E. F. Burian Theatre, in 1941–1943 he was an assistant director at the National Theatre, and in the 1943/1944 season he was a conductor and opera director at the State Theatre in Brno. In 1945 he co-founded the 5th of May Theatre together with Antonín Kurš and Alóis Haba, and from 1945 to 1948 he led the opera there as a director, stage manager and conductor. After the theatre merged with the National Theatre in 1948 he became a director and conductor of the National Theatre. In the 1951/1952 season was a member of the three-member opera management, and in 1958–1960 he was deputy director of the opera for the Smetana Theatre. In 1962–1965 he was also director of the Laterna Magica.

He worked at the National Theatre from 1948 to 1989. During his stay there he worked closely with the designers František Tröster and Josef Svoboda. He successfully used film and projection techniques in his productions.

He directed guest performances at La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera in London, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Staatsoper and Volksoper in Vienna, Deutsche Oper in Berlin, as well as on opera stages in Munich, Dresden, Zurich, Copenhagen and other cities.

He is the author of several ballets, instrumental pieces, two operas and two melodramas. In the 1960s and 1970s he filmed many opera and ballet productions for television and film. In 1987 his memoirs "Jak jsem děla operu" (published by Panton Prague) were published.

He is buried in Příbram at the municipal cemetery "on Panská luka".