On 11th of January, the Welcome Centre organized a cultural visit to the Czech National Theatre to watch the famous opera Bartender Bride. It was a first event by the Welcome Centre in the New Year 2023.
The National Theatre has presented many adaptations of The Bartered Bride. The 21st production of The Bartered Bride was entrusted to the film and stage director Alice Nellis. As interpreted by Alice Nellis, The Bartered Bride this time does not only poke fun at villagers of bygone times, but also at those who for generations have striven to find the formula for restaging the Czech "opera of operas“ – the opera creators themselves. Accordingly, the new production of The Bartered Bride does not only retell the story of Mařenka, Jeník, Vašek and Kecal, it is also about “how opera is made“.
Although the director changed the concept, which could be seen as controversial, we enjoyed it very much.
During one of our breaks, we enjoyed a tour of the National Theatre as the building belongs to the most important Czech cultural institutions, with a rich artistic tradition, which helped to preserve and develop the most important features of the nation. The National Theatre was opened for the first time on 11 June 1881, to honour the visit of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria. Bedřich Smetana's opera Libuše was given its world premiere. In 1881 a fire broke out and destroyed the copper dome, the auditorium and the stage of the theatre. The fire was seen as a national catastrophe and was met with a mighty wave of determination to take up a new collection: within 47 days a million florins were collected.
The interior artwork was done by Mikoláš Aleš and František Ženíšek. The building of the National Theatre was inaugurated on 18 November 1883. The building, with perfect technical equipment (electric illumination, a steel-constructed stage), served without any extensive modifications for almost one hundred years.
We enjoyed a short tour of the building and finished it on the roof of the Theatre with a wonderful evening view of the city.