symphonies operas concert halls

Last saturday night Allison and I went to a symphony concert in Dvorak hall in the Rudolfinum. I ordered the tickets online, they were only 100 crowns ($5) for seats anywhere in the house, we chose row 7. It was the Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Prague Philharmonic Choir. Turns out it was part of a series of Prague Premiers, which means this was the first time the music we listened to had ever been performed. It was really amazing.

The first piece used the orchestra, including the massive and very ornate organ. The second piece was the orchestra and a soprano, (Liana Sass (forgive me, it makes it seem more important if I name the people as if you know them)) who was amazing. The last piece was the whole time after the intermission, I think at least an hour or maybe an hour and a half. It had the orchestra, choir, the soprano, as well as a tenor (Michal Leotsky) and a baritone (Roman Janal).

I enjoyed those three, especially during the parts where none of them were singing. Liana would have her chin lifted, eyes looking away dreamily, as she contemplated the music. Michal Leotsky would be staring at the music stand in front of him. always. Roman Janal would survey the audience or his fellow vocalists with a haughty expression on his face.

Another interesting thing was that after each piece, during the applause, the conductor would motion to the back and the composer would come up on stage to shake and thank and congratulate and be thanked and congratulated and applauded. I hate to admit it, but it did take us until after the second piece to realize they were the composers, we had sort of forgotten the series was premiers of new pieces. But it was fun. The first, according to the program, was called Verdoyances Crepuscules by Kimmo Hakola, of Finland. The second one was At the Yellow Emperor's time, by John Frandsen of Denmark. And the last, and longest was called Requiem by a Czech, Juraj Filas. He got the largest applause. We also were proud of ourselves for understanding a few words of it! We heard the baritone singing "REQUIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM" (he had quite a powerful voice, perhaps the source of his haughty expressions?) And I also understood the choir at one point when they sang "Sanctum Dominum" over and over again. The conductor liked that part, he was dancing along to it.

On Monday night, we remembered at the last moment that we had tickets to the opera (one of our school outings, and as our director was in London for the Dolly Parton concert, there was some confusion about if we had the tickets and where they were and who was going). It was a czech opera, Tajemstvi (Secrets), the last of Smetana's operas, apparently. Luckily for us, there were english subtitles. That didn't completely help us decipher what was going on. I had a slight advantage because I had read a summary of it beforehand, but partly because of the minimalist stage sets, it was still kind of confusing. I wasn't over-awed with the story, more so with the music and the room. This performance was in the National Opera house.

Both performances were impressive, and I'm glad I went. I feel more cultured now, even though for lack of time I'm ashamed to say I attended the opera in corduroys and sneakers. Luckily we were not the only "d*** tourists" as our czech professor lamented when we told him we had no time to change for it. In fact almost all the upper galleries were filled with people dressed as casually as we were. Well I believe I've rambled long enough on this entry, tune in next time to hear about why french and czech are confusing my head.