Jaroslav Blaho (source: TASR)
Italian Ambassador to Slovakia Gabriele Meucci gave the Order of the Star of Italy granted by the Italian president to recognised expert in Italian opera Jaroslav Blaho, and teacher at the Grammar School of Ladislav Sára in Bratislava Marta Markošová, in late March 2017.
Blaho is the most important critic of the Italian opera in Slovakia and has devoted much of his life to spreading knowledge about it. He led a cycle of lectures titled “Italian Opera Evening” in the Slovak National Gallery and also created television programmes where in easy and understandable words explained the Italian opera pieces to viewers.
As an art director of the opera part of the Zvolen Castle Festivities festival, he focused particularly on big Italian composers, the Operaslovakia.sk website reported.
Markošová received the award for her passion for teaching the Italian language and spreading Italian culture in Slovakia. This is especially the case of the Grammar School of Ladislav Sára in Bratislava, which is the only Slovak-Italian school in the country.
She contributed to the opening of the bilingual section which currently has more than 200 students. She has also participated in organising cultural events focused on spreading the Italian language, the website wrote.
