Hello!!!
I’ve been away from the opera world for a while cause I’ve had the greatest
vacations in Prague!!!
Prague is
very beautiful, charming and mystical. The more I walked there, the more I fell
in love with this place! It was so hard to leave it that I dropped few coins in
Vltava to come back someday:). I guess one of the main reasons of my affection
is the incredible atmosphere of music that exists there.
You can
find many posters of different music festivals or recitals of famous singers
(of course, I mostly noticed posters with opera singers:)). In Prague they have
a huge amount of concert halls (I guess almost in every building), churches
where you can listen to sacred pieces. Everybody gave us leaflets about an
upcoming organ concert or something like that.
But, as an
operalover, I was mostly interested in things concerning the immortal kind of
art – opera! There are three opera theatres in the city and I was lucky to visit
one of them which is called the Estates Theatre. It’s famous for the fact that
Mozart conducted his first «Don Giovanni» there! So I had to get inside at
least to feel its atmosphere. The only opportunity for me was the performance
on the first day of my journey. This was the chamber recital where two local
opera singers sang famous arias from Mozart operas. The concert itself was,
let’s say, not brilliant but anyway I enjoyed being there as this theatre
doesn’t look like a modern opera house: no orchestra pit, every box has a
mirror. When you are there, you really begin to imagine how all those ladies
dressed in spectacular outfits with huge wigs could sit on the exact same place
as you are sitting now…it’s magic!
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| The Estates Theatre |
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| The National Theatre |
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| The State Opera |
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But when
you go outside, you can enjoy sounds of Czech streets!
There are a
lot of street musicians (and very talented, by the way) in Prague. Maybe, you’ll
say, «nothing special!» but I’m not used to it in my hometown…so for me it’s
unique! And at the same square you can hear jazz, pop-rock, classics and even
ethnic music! You can choose anything you want!
I consider
that the most massive concentration of amazing musicians is in Staromestska
Square. We lived in this area so every night we could enjoy good music on the way
to our hotel. On the day of our arrival we listened to a jazz band called « Staromestsky Dixieland». These musicians amused the surrounding
audience by playing New Orleans jazz. As I know many Russian tourists like this
band, so you can find a lot of videos of their performances on the Internet.
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| Staromestsky Dixieland |
Another
interesting artist is Ondrej Glogar who is the member of the ethno-trance band «Yedhaki:Nautika».
He played a very long wooden pipe (I don’t know how it’s called) and sometimes
performed with another guy who had an unusual music instrument – a hang drum.
They were very popular in Staromestska Square and always gathered a huge
audience!
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| Ondrej Glogar |
If you go
along Vltava in the direction of The National Theatre, you will listen to my
favorite street musician of Prague - Martin Ševčík. In the evenings he performs with his friend Tomáš Formánek (percussions) singing famous pop-rock covers.
Why do I like him most of all? Because I’ve mistaken him for a playing song on
a radio TWICE! He sounds very professional and has a very nice timbre that I
would give him 100 euros if I had spare cash!
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| Martin Ševčík and Tomáš Formánek |
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| Martin Ševčík and Tomáš Formánek in the cafe |
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But not
only Czech musicians made a huge impression on me…
Surprisingly,
in the last evening of our vacations we ran into the piece of France in Prague!
This was the 7th traditional French market where you could buy French cheese or
wine and even their famous snails (escargots). I didn’t risk to try them, by
the way, but my friends found them tasty:). And the French band «Les Garçons Trottoirs» created an unforgettable atmosphere with
their cheerful songs and made everybody dance or clap along! I would say that
they have kinda folk style of music, maybe because of the accordionist. «Les
Garçons» totally rocked that day and it was doubly hard to leave Prague after
that.
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| Les Garçons Trottoirs (ArtEos Photo) |
I think
everybody finds something unique for yourself in Prague. And if you are so in
love with music as I am, you’ll catch the tune of this place and keep it in
your heart for sure!
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