When Music Can (Should) Provoke Few concerts have been as provocative as the Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK) rendition of Vladimír Sommer’s 1958 Vocal Symphony for Mezzosoprano, Narrator, Choir and Orchestra performed Mar 8 at the Municipal House. In fact, in her Opus Osm article Mar 1 about the piece, Hana Škrdlová explains Sommer’s mostly politically-commissioned works are classified as “some of the most weighty” written by Czechs after 1945. The…
Tag: Hana Škrdlová
Tuesday, February 21, 2012: White Rabbits and Princesses
White Rabbits and Princesses: Fairy Tale Music What I really don’t need when I go to a concert are entertainers, in Czech called “moderators,” to hype an event and tell people what they should think and do. Unless they come dressed as white rabbits, that is. The Prague Philharmonia performed “Fairy Tales for Children” at the Rudolfinum Sun, Feb 12. Concert-goers were treated to an evening of wonderful music interspersed…
Friday, February 10, 2012: Time Out
Take Time Out to Catch Up on the News We’re pausing from our usual format just for today to share some positive, Opus Osm news: New! Archive! Look at the black bar at the top of every Opus Osm page – you’ll see the Archive tab. Click to find every article we’ve ever published, right from our very first issue of September 2010. Improved! Calendar! We’ve always had an Events…
Monday, February 6, 2012: Enchanting Opera
Enchanting Opera At first they wouldn’t let any of us into the National Theater through the front door. The front door is for sissies apparently, which we certainly were not. So we stood outside in the cold on the piazza in groups led by pretty young women wearing funny hats and holding sign posts. Then the Frogmen came. They yelled at us through loudspeakers in languages that can only be…
Tuesday, December 6, 2011: First Impressions
First Impressions The man who walked on stage with an odd gait exuded sternness. A man in his later prime, with a black bow tie around the collar of his stiff white shirt, he approached the lone grand piano in Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum empty-handed. His grey hair, left a little longer on top, did little to soften this impression. I had not known what to expect, never having…
Tuesday, October 25, 2011:What He Said!
What He Said! (He Hates Ballet …?) On Oct 12 on Opus Osm you could read choreographer Jan Kodet’s amusing explanation of how most modern guys react to the ballet. He says that they only visit their first ballet as a result of a negotiated settlement with their girlfriends. But then the guys are surprised to find that they actually like ballet. Is it possible? Could Mr Kodet be right?…
Tuesday, August 2, 2011: United Choirs
Filling the Hall with United Choirs On July 16, Smetana Hall in Prague’s Municipal House played host to the United Choirs of Proms, one of the many concerts in this summer’s Prague Proms International Music Festival. Sharing the bill this evening were works by Leonard Bernstein and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Initially the stage, with its few floral arrangements and an enormous organ, seemed rather forlorn. Then the American and European…
Thursday, June 30, 2011: Scissors?
A Good Bad Day at the Opera When Scissors Did What Farm Machinery Could Not – At the Opera! It was a warm, summery night although it was not quite summer. It was an almost perfect night to have tickets to the National Theatre’s production of The Elixir of Love, the comic opera by Gaetano Donizetti. Where else to take visitors from the U.S., including no less than a perceptive…
Tuesday, March 1, 2011: Best Seat in the House
The National Theatre in Prague is one of the best known theatres in the Czech Republic. Its origins have more to do with social structures of the day than modern acoustic and visual demands. It has a large pit to accommodate an orchestra and an impressive stage for the extensive use of scenery. Its auditorium is traditionally U-shaped with balconies and galleries extending above the ground floor seats. Finding the…
