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Thursday August 26th
The little people all wanted to stay back with Hemi and work on their puppet plays, so Mary is telling the story today.
Having caught the 14 tram to take us into the old town part of the city, we quickly found our way in the right direction. I had been keen to go to the Carmen Ballet/Opera the night before having seen a flyer, and now we right outside the booking office. So we went in an inquired. As we are still going to be here on Saturday, we have booked. It was much cheaper to take unreserved seats. You apparently turn up early and have a block you can sit in. So we will make sure we are back her right at 7pm for when the doors open to fight for a good seat. As we left he handed me the flyer for Swan Lake and I said no, one is enough, and he said that is what you booked for. He had booked us in for Friday not Saturday. So it was quickly changed, as although Swan Lake would be lovely too, the combination of Carmen as a ballet and opera with live orchestra really appeals.
Today was spent in and around the old town in Prague. There was such a lot to see and do in this area and the buildings are quite spectacular. Most of the historic buildings with entry using the card are art galleries and the ones in this area housed some modern works of art which was quite refreshing after all the 15 -18 century works we had viewed yesterday. There was some really impressive use of computers and data projectors in Stone Bell House and Golden Ring House. There are several towers you can climb up to get a good view of Prague and we decided one was enough so we chose The Powder Tower, the monumental entrance to the old town.
In the afternoon we visited the Bedrich Smetana museum. This was a small and informative museum about the composer’s life. The last visit of the day was to the Museum of Decorative Arts. It was fascinating and easy to view even though we were getting wary by this time in the day. There was a glass exhibition with items from the Glass school in Zelezny Brod from 1920-2010. Here you were able to make your own piece of glass jewellery as a souvenir with no more than 5 beads. The rest of the gallery was a permanent collection with many fascinating pieces of jewellery, clothing and domestic objects. It has one of the world’s biggest collections of glass, some of which is very old and unusual.
The concert at the Rudolfinum Concert Hall and home of the Czech Philarmonic who were playing, was the highlight of the day. Renowned for having perfect acoustics, the interior of the concert hall was also impressive and many tourists had their cameras out taking illegal photos. This kept the staff alert and most photographers were politely told that taking photos was not permitted. I have included a photo of the outside.
The Prague audience have been to clapping school. From the minute the first musician appeared until the last was finally seated they were applauding. This was not light tapping, this was a thunderous applause, and the person next to us had mastered the technique and could clap really loudly by the way he held his hands. This was followed by even more enthusiastic clapping for the conductor. There was not a hint of a clap until each piece was finished with no clapping between movements,(unlike NZ audiences) but then there was a sustained loud enthusiastic applause that went on for several minutes at the end of each number.
The conductor was Sir John Eliot Gardiner from England and the programme was part of a series called, Don’t be Afraid of Classics. Being part of a Dvorak season, the opening number was his Carnival Overture this was followed by the Grieg A minor piano concerto. Lars Vogt from Germany was the pianist and we were lucky to have chosen seats that looked right down on the piano. He was so obviously enjoying his music and also the orchestra’s interpretation of it as well. The audience’s prolonged enthusiastic clapping drew him back to the stage many times and in the end managed to get him to play a short encore. The second half opened with Balad of Blanik a symphonic poem by Czech composer Janacek. The major work was Dvorak’s Symphony No 8 “English”. There was quite a change of orchestral personal especially in the woodwind and brass for the second half so they must have a lot of people on the payroll. I guess unlike the NZSO they don’t call up the students when someone is sick. It was a treat to have heard such a wonderful orchestra live.
After the concert we caught the 17 tram which is the one that takes us in our direction. After a relatively long ride it came to a halt and we were the only ones left on it and the driver said we had to get off and go and catch another and pointed to the tram stop. So we went to the tram stop and caught one that we thought was going in the right direction. Suddenly I recognised the buildings in town and said we are back in town. We got off at the next available stop and crossed the road and got one travelling in the opposite direction and finally got to our stop. Because it was dark and everything looked different it was impossible to know where we really were. Looking on the map this morning, I can see we were on a tram that terminated one stop from where we usually got off. The tram went into a little siding and when we got out of there we got ourselves going the wrong way. We did get to see Prague all lit up at night, twice, and eventually got back to the camp quite late.
Hello Mary and Allan in Prague - I am one of your regular followers, AND ALMOST CHECK IN EVERY DAY - so am enjoying the Eastern block part of your holidaying - the history and the architecture - well done you !! -Rose
ReplyDeletePleased to hear you are enjoying the travels. Every now and then I let the toys have a bit of fun and I think of you and know you will be enjoyingthe fantasy!
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