Northward bound I: Prague

Leipzig, 6 February 2016

Albrecht House

This post is mostly about our travels, but first I need to talk about our final full day in Bratislava (Tuesday). We took a break from cleaning the apartment to visit our friends Igor and Vlasta at their Music Forum shop in the old city.

Igor, Vlasta, and my special friend Maša

Around the corner from their shop, at Kapitulská 1, is the former home of Alexander Albrecht (and later his son Ján), one of the leading figures in Slovak music of the first half of the 20th century. He was choirmaster at St. Martin's Cathedral and headmaster of the city music school. He was also a friend and classmate of Béla Bartók, who spent much time in Bratislava (then part of Hungary) in his early life. The Albrecht homes were centers of musical life in Bratislava for most of the 20th century, with what we might call "salon concerts," frequent informal gatherings of local and visiting musicians.

After Ján's death in 1996, the house was vacant and soon began to leak, with a decade of rain reducing the house nearly to a ruin. In 2010, Igor began a campaign called the Albrecht Forum to raise funds to renovate the house. On Tuesday, he gave us a tour through what must have once been a beautiful mansion, but is now mostly an empty hulk. They plan to reconstruct the house to its former glory, with spaces for performances both in an intimate indoor hall and in the outdoor garden. Some renovation has been completed and, if they can continue to raise enough funds to keep going, they hope to finish in 2-3 years.

We took quite a few pictures of the interior of the house as Igor gave us a guided tour. But rather than post our pictures, I want to invite you to view the excellent video on the introduction page of the Albrecht Forum Web site, which features an Albrecht-like character walking through the rooms. You can also find more information on the site about the Albrechts and their role in the music of Bratislava, and, if you are so inclined, donate a few euros to this most excellent cause.

On the road

Wednesday was our departure day, and although we were totally exhausted from making the apartment about 10 times cleaner than it really needed to be, everything went smoothly and we got off around noon.

We had given a bunch of kitchen stuff---both food and utensils---to our friend Lani, who is a Fulbright English teaching assistant in the tiny agricultural town of Rakovice. She was just returning from the Fulbright conference through Bratislava on Monday, so we picked her up at the train station and drove her, with all of our "donations," to Rakovice. But we forgot one large box that was sitting on the stove. So our route to Prague was adjusted to detour through Rakovice, then across the Malý Karpaty mountains on narrow (sometimes one-lane) roads to the Czech border and back onto the motorway to Prague. Not that this was smooth sailing. The Czech motorways are sometimes in such poor condition that they feel worse than tiny mountain roads: Thunkety-thunkety-thunkety-thunk until the fillings are ready to fall out of your teeth.

East of the Vltava

The tourist areas of Prague are divided by the the Vltava River, which winds through the city with the main city square on the right bank and the Prague Castle on the left. Our lovely little hotel was on the right (east) bank, just a block from the Powder Gate, which used to allow entrance through the city walls into the old city.

Powder Gate

Next to the gate is the concert hall of the Czech Philharmonic, the Municipal House. As discussed below, we did not get to hear the orchestra but found another intriguing alternative.

Municipal House

Across the street from the hotel is a lovely pink building. I don't know what it is, but like many of the buildings in Prague it must have a history. Until I hear otherwise, I'm calling "Hobbs Palace."

On Thursday we toured sights near our hotel on the east bank around the main square and the historical Jewish district. Entering the old city through the gate takes one down Celetná Street past a building with a large statue of a "Black Madonna" on the corner of its first floor.

Bohemia seems to have two iconic specialties: crystal and garnets. There are multiple shops selling both in every block of the tourist districts. We have enjoyed window shopping, but the thought of trying to cram crystal into our stuffed suitcases for the flight home without breaking it is too frightening.

The Old Town Hall dominates the central square.

On its west side (the left side in the picture above) is an old astronomical clock that tells time, date, and phases of the moon and zodiac. This one is (supposedly) real, unlike the one we saw last week in Olomouc, which was a Soviet-era concoction.

Next to the clock is the traditional city coat of arms above the entrance doors.

Another large and beautiful building on the square is the Kinský Palace, which now houses collections of the Czech National Gallery, but which used to be a gymnasium attended by a teenage Franz Kafka.

The massive Church of Our Lady before Týn is not actually on the square, but its tall towers dominate the skyline from behind the smaller buildings.

On the north side of the square is the Church of St. Nicholas (east-side version), which is impressive both inside and out. It has magnificent frescoed ceilings, an amazing crystal chandelier, and an organ whose pipes are as much sculpture as musical instrument.

Just to the west of St. Nicholas at the edge of Josefov, the historical Jewish Quarter named after Josef II who stopped the worst of the discriminations against Jews in Prague, is Namestí Franze Kafky (Franz Kafka Square), commemorating the author who lived and wrote in Prague. Of course, Café Kafka now occupies prime space on the square. There is a Kafka Museum (which we did not have time to visit) in another part of the city.

There is a whole tour of synagogues and other sights in Josefov. We walked through and took a couple of pictures of the exterior of synagogues, but didn't end up doing the full tour.

The other major tourist area on the east side of the river is Wenceslas Square, named for "Good King Wenceslas" of Christmas-carol fame. He was indeed a king of Bohemia from 921 until he was killed by his brother in 935. He is buried in a chapel of St. Vitus's Cathedral on the west side of the river. (See below.) We visited the square before leaving Prague on Saturday morning.

The Wenceslas Square of 2016 has many fine buildings, but is mostly shops and hotels rather than anything of serious tourist interest. The National Museum lies at the south end of the square, seen here on a hazy Saturday morning looking into the sun.

The building below is at the north end of the square and is called the Koruna Palace because of the crown that tops its tower.

The pink building below was built by Assicurazioni Generali, an Italian insurance company, and was the place of employment for Kafka for what he reported to be an unpleasant year.

Across the street is the ornately decorated Lucerna Palace, with one of many dozens of Prague book stores occupying the ground floor.

Prague doesn't have as many quirky, contemporary bronze sculptures as Bratislava, but we found one on the square:

Magic Flute, Prague style

We wanted to see and hear music on our northward journey, so a few weeks ago I booked several sets of tickets. I looked into hearing the Czech Philharmonic, but it turns out that they were performing a concert of Broadway music this weekend ... in Bratislava! Looking for alternatives, I found a performance by the Czech National Theater of Mozart's Magic Flute at the Estates Theater just inside the Powder Gate. This opera is especially dear to us because Suzanne played its flute parts for a production in graduate school. I was able to get perfect tickets in the center of the theater for Thursday evening's performance.

The Estates Theater is not the main opera house in Prague; that is a few blocks away. We were not sure exactly why the performance was to be staged there, but we soon found out.

Estates Theater

Stage from our seats

Boxes around the theater

The reason for staging the Magic Flute in the Estates Theater is that it is the only intact, surviving theater in which Mozart actually performed. He wrote the original version of Don Giovanni in Prague and conducted the debut from the harpsichord in this very hall. The Prague Opera uses it for most of its Mozart productions. That history alone made this a very special evening.

The Magic Flute that we saw on Thursday is not just a normal, vanilla Magic Flute. Director Vladimír Morávek has created an outrageous and (mostly) wonderfully twisted production of this famous and favorite classic. He re-imagined and staged the Magic Flute as narrative presented by Mozart to the audience.

In the picture of the stage shown above (taken before the performance) you see a chair and a table with a lighted candle set in front of the closed curtain. Since the opera begins in a forest, Suzanne and I looked at each other with puzzled expressions and wondered what was going to happen. Another puzzling look came when we looked at the cast in the program and found a part listed for "Mozart." Hmmm.

Before the overture began, an actor sneaked onto the stage next to the table wearing rough brown pants and a somewhat dingy white shirt with blousy cuffs. The conductor came on stage and began the overture and as the music proceeded it became clear that the actor was Mozart, as he alternately air-conducted the music and took a quill and frantically scribbled down passages of music.

Immediately after the overture, the voice of an announcer told a story (true or not?) that Mozart had frequent nightmares as a young child and that his father had given him a small recorder, telling him that playing the recorder would banish all the fantasy demons that were threatening him. The stage for this production is set with a wild, nightmarish collage of dragons, three-eyed elephants, and other fantastic and frightening apparitions. As the announcer tells this story, we see a young boy come onto the stage with a recorder, wearing a red waistcoat and white wig of the kind that Mozart wore in many portraits. The boy plays the recorder briefly, then leaves the stage, which then reveals the forest setting for the first scene.

The adult Mozart character stays on stage for the entire opera, conducting, prompting the singers, and sometimes scribbling with his quill. He had one additional role. Instead of using recitative with harpsichord, as is so often done with the spoken lines throughout the opera, the actors actually speak (rather than sing) the lines in German. "Mozart" then speaks the same lines in Czech (with English titles above the stage for those of us who cannot follow either the German or the Czech).

I love the idea of the Mozart character being on stage pretending that he is writing the opera and presenting it to the audience as it goes along. Very clever and intriguing twist. But it tended to get tedious by the latter stages of the first act and into the second, especially the loss of spontaneity at having every spoken line repeated before we hear the responding line (which is then dutifully repeated). You almost expect the actors to finish his line, turn to Mozart, and say "Czech, please." (Sorry, "bad Czech" puns have become a way of life this week!)

The production's biggest surprise is saved for the final seconds of the opera. After two hours of struggling with adversity, Tamino and Pamina have at last found each other, survived their three challenges, and are finally poised to embrace their romantic ending. But as the orchestra plays the opera's final notes, instead of embracing the hero, Pamina leaves Tamino's side and goes to the very front of the stage to embrace Mozart as the curtain drops in front of everyone else! The staging of the play as the composer's personal fantasy is complete---Mozart gets the girl in the end.

This all sounds pretty weird, but despite the unusual staging the music did not get lost or even compromised. Every note was faithfully retained and often brilliantly performed. Marie Fajtová was outstanding as Pamina and Olga Jelinková sang the difficult coloratura role of the Queen of the Night as well as I have ever heard it, live or recorded, maybe better. The male singers were all very good---there were no weak links in the cast---but Jan Šťáva as villain-who-turns-out-to-be-a-good-guy Sarastro caught my ear as being truly impressive, handling the extreme low register of his lines with remarkable volume and tone.

We will never forget this wonderful experience. Wow. I only wish it had come at a younger age so that I would have more years to savor the memory!

West of the Vltava

After spending Thursday on the east side, we walked to the west side of the Vltava on Friday, starting with a hike across the famous, statue-lined Charles Bridge. I was surprised as we walked across to find that the statues vary greatly. Some are stone and some bronze. And the dates on the plinths suggest that they were put in place over several centuries, not all at once. Perhaps this is because the original statues from the 1300s have all deteriorated and required replacement at different times.

East portal to the Charles Bridge

Not very crowded in the morning

Prague Castle and St. Vitus's Cathedral from Charles Bridge

Once across the bridge, we found ourselves at another St. Nicholas Church. I guess that Czechs revere St. Nicholas enough to have two enormous churches dedicated to him on both sides of the river ... and why not? We know him as Santa Claus!

St. Nicholas (west) belfry, with church behind

We got to know the belfry of this church a little more up close and personal than I had planned. We wanted to go into the church, so we went through a door and bought tickets. The ticket-seller then motioned us through an inside door and up a flight of stairs ... and another flight of stairs, then a spiral staircase that seemed like it would never end, then some wooden stairs that were more of a ladder, and on and on. After about two flights we realized that we had bought tickets to climb the belfry, not visit the church! Oops! Suzanne had no problem, but my acrophobia kept me looking straight ahead and holding on all the way up 303 steps, and then all the way down. But I did it! And the views from the top were indeed magnificent.

Lower part of Prague Castle complex from the belfry

Looking back across the Charles Bridge

Once we were safely back to terra firma (thanks be to God!), we did find our way into the church, which was well worth the wait and the detour.

St, Nicholas is high at the top of the alterpiece

Organ or art? How about both?

St. Cyril, perhaps punishing someone who got a Cyrillic letter wrong?

St. Basil, the patron saint of pesto?

A few more blocks of uphill climbing brought us to Prague Castle, high on the hilltop where we could look down on the St. Nicholas belfry!

There are many beautiful buildings and museums in the Castle area---more than a day's worth. One of the most striking is the Schwarzenburg Palace, decorated in black and white sgraffito. It is now an art museum, but with only time and energy for one museum we chose the Sternberg Palace across the street.

Schwarzenburg Palace

Sternberg Palace

No pictures allowed in the Sternberg Palace museum, which was a wonderful collection of paintings mostly from the 14th through the 17th centuries. Then it was on into the castle itself, the first building of which is now the office of the Czech president. He is well guarded by the two nasty-looking statues and by somewhat less intimidating human guards.

This one reminds me of Ralphie with his Red Rider BB gun, all decked out in Aunt Clara's latest costume (once she figured out that he was a boy)!

Inside the castle is St. Vitus's Cathedral, the largest and most important church in Prague. It contains the remains of St. Vitus himself, as well as St. Johann Nepomuk and, in a special chapel on the side of the church, St. (and Good King) Wenceslas!

The rear entrance to St. Vitus's Cathedral

The side entrance, with the Golden Portal

The interior of the cathedral is typically Gothic, without extensive frescoes but with wonderful stained-glass windows and a fantastic organ.

 

Sepulcher of St. Vitus

Grave of St. Johann Nepomuk

The remains of Good King Wenceslas are in the house-shaped red monument to the right

After being awed by St. Vitus, we went around the corner (still inside the castle walls) to St. George's Basilica. Red on the outside, its interior is austere and faded.

On the side, it has a relief of St. George slaying the dragon above a side portal.

As we walked, exhausted, back across the Charles Bridge, we couldn't resist a picture of the National Theater from the water.

Food always tastes better when you have worked up an appetite. The food and wine had been a bit disappointing in our first two days, but Friday's dinner made up for it. We had a wonderful meal in the restaurant of the King's Court Hotel, right next to the Municipal House.

Today was a travel day and a relatively short drive (about three hours) brought us to Leipzig. There were no border controls coming into Germany today, unlike when we crossed the same border in November and had to drive slowly past agents watching for unauthorized persons. We will hear the Gewandhaus Orchestra tomorrow and then tour the musical sights in the center of the city, before heading further north on Monday. I'll post more when I have more to tell you. Until then, auf wiedersehen.