Greetings and welcome to another little bit of Friday fluff. It has practically nothing to do with Valentine’s Day. Kicking off my little contribution to community open threads this time are a few photos of the recently reconstructed and reopened State Opera House in Prague.
Originally built by the Viennese firm of Fellner and Helmer for the German-speaking community of Prague in the late 1880s as a counterpart to the Czech National Theater, this little neorenaissance pearl has been closed for years. I’d never been inside it and when it was reopened in January I discovered that Mrs the Werelynx hadn’t been inside either.
Out of curiosity, we looked online to see if any tickets were available for anything interesting. There were, and Mrs the Werelynx decided we could indulge our curiosity about the modernization of this old building.
We were among the first of the audience members to arrive. We took advantage of the time before the performance and during the intermission to explore.
When the opera started we had three empty seats in front of us. After the intermission two young children and a young woman who had all taken part in the boisterous second scene at Momus Cafe took the empty seats. There was something charming about that. For me it added a layer of intimacy. It made me think of the plays I’d seen where whole families took part, reminded me of my neighbor and her family of actors.
La Boheme doesn’t have a lot of catchy melodies, but it has a great number of moments where a singer can shine. And it was a very strong cast, so many young, talented singers.
We can’t afford to go out to the opera every night, but once every 50 years or so— that we can do.
Hmm, now I’m thinking I would like to re-watch A Night at the Opera with the Marx Brothers.
Thanks for stopping by.
This is an open thread.