Prague Musings on Music

There’s a lot of music in Prague. Not only are there three opera houses but it also has a great orchestra. These four were my targets for my stay in Prague. But there are also musical amusements planned for tourist. These concerts are advertised very heavily by wandering groups of students particularly in the old town where tourists tend to gather. It seemed to me that the most important statement was at the bottom of the flyer saying “This concert will take no longer than 70 minutes”. There are performances in many other venues but, because it was low season February, I never managed to hear the Prague Symphony Orchestra or the Radio Orchestra, for example, and I didn’t want to attend any ballet performances or other shows which are staged. As I said there’s a lot of music in Prague and they do cater for everybody.

The most startling aspect of performances in Prague is the price. Who can stay at home when you can get a seat at the opera for under 4 euros? You can also hear one of the best orchestras in the world for not much more. In Vienna, you can stand in the very best position in the house for four euros and stand/sit/lay in the balcony for three euros but standing for three hours can wear out your knees. On average, Vienna music costs five times the price of Prague music!

All the opera houses are smaller than most of their capital city counterparts elsewhere. This means that you get more direct sound from the stage and pit which suits me perfectly. My favourite for a number of reasons is the socalled ‘Estates Theatre’, which has an extremely dry acoustic despite the fact that it’s not that much smaller than the other houses. It may be because it is the original theatre in which Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’ was first performed and the interior is naturally all wood. You are reminded of this when you hear somebody clumping around on the level above during the performance!

The Rudolfino Dvorak hall has superb acoustics for concerts. It’s a very small hall with steeply raked seats throughout but with a high ceiling which gives it a substantial reverberation time, more than adequate for the most demanding of orchestral works. It was also very kind to a lieder recital which I heard there. There are many other performance areas in Prague, for example the Smetana Hall where the Prague symphony performs, but this orchestra was not on deck during my visit. It was probably playing for ballet performances in yet another theatre opposite the Municipal Hall.

The standard of orchestral playing in Prague seems very high. The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra has always been highly thought of and this is one feature of Bolshevik Czechoslovakia which shone throughout the occupation via Supraphon Records, which promulgated the cause of Bolshevik Czech and other fine music. On the other hand, the film ‘Kolya’ shows what happened to those musicians who did not get on with the regime.

In fact there seems no shortage of good orchestral musicians in Prague. The standards of playing are OK in all the opera houses and the choruses are also excellent. Hearing the Anton Stradler clarinet obligati played so well for the Estates Theatre perfromance of ‘La Clemenza di Tito’ is something I will never forget. But what a surprise to hear such playing in the theatre where it was first performed!!

It’s in the area of principal singers that the opera performances fall down. I had it explained to me by a Czech musician. “As soon as a great singer emerges here, he is whisked off to the big opera houses. He was talking about tenors where the most glaring shortages appear. I presume that Czech audiences want to enjoy ALL the great operas, not just the local works. But you really need those big tenors to tackle those roles. The Czech Republic doesn’t often have these; at least they didn’t during my visit. But I heard a good Amneris at the National Theatre and a fine Liu at the State Theatre. All the Estates Theatre young singers managed their roles perfectly within their limitations so there seemed very few problems there. But the Estates Theatre concentrates on Mozart and their skill in this area is very evident. And there were many more good principals in the other two houses who will soon disappear from Prague and eventually perform at the Met – or so the man said!

Buying a seat for an opera in a house you do not know is always a problem. I like to get as much direct sound as possible but, in a small house, this is no problem. Then I am about six feet tall so I like to have room to sit comfortably. After being tortured during a Lang Lang performance in the Vienna Musikverein, this has suddenly become paramount in my considerations for buying a ticket. (One Viennese gentleman even demonstrated for me how he wrapped himself around the seat in order to fit into his seat.)

So my ideal opera house seat is the chair they put behind the front seats in each box. In the box directly facing the stage, they may place two or even three chairs in this position. The front seats of each box puzzle me because they are often only a few inches off the ground making it impossible for anybody over the height of four feet to be comfortable in my opinion. (But I never heard anybody complain, much to my amazement.) But the seat behind is a high chair, ideal for anybody about six feet tall. You have a clear view of the stage over the heads of the low people in front. You can obviously hear well. You can stretch your legs. You can even walk about a bit. Heaven!!

I find that box office people are reluctant to sell these second row seats. This is great because I can go in on the day of a performance and buy the seat of my choice. They are also half the price of the first row seats. In the Dvorak Hall, I have normally been in the balcony but, for two concerts, I have been on the front row. For some reason, these seats are about half the price of a few rows back where the series subscribers sit. In this hall, if you sit here, you can stretch your legs out and the performer is singing just for you!! You cannot see any other members of the audience so this is ideal for lieder. You live through each song with the performer!! But I must admit to a slight case of masochism when I sat in front for the Schumann four horn piece. But what a sound!!! I confess that I like to sit in the front in a cinema so I suppose it’s no surprise that I like to do the same in a concert. The Czech Phil has a very strong string section (say that quickly ten times!!) so the wind can seem very distant in some passages if you sit on the very front seats!!

Yes. If you want a good diet of fine orchestral music and not-so-good opera, Prague is for you!