The Estates Theatre in
Prague is a place of pilgrimage to Mozart fans, because he conducted himself
the first performance of Don Giovanni in the theatre in 1787. The interior has
slightly less golden decorations than the National Theatre - but only slightly.
The evening’s
performance was Gaetano Donizetti’s “Viva la Mamma” (also known as “Le
convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali”). Donizetti composed some masterful bel
canto operas like “Lucia di Lammermoor”, but also some excellent farces. “Viva
la Mamma” is a prime example of the latter. The story tells about a quarrelling
opera troupe, where especially the mother of the seconda donna wants either her
daughter or herself to have more stage time. In the end the whole performance
is cancelled and the troupe sneaks away in the middle of the night.
The opera itself is an
interesting mixture: there are some absolutely fabulous arias, best of which are
sung by the prima donna of the opera troupe, Daria (Kateřina Knĕžiková).
Her coloratura was quite stunning. But in addition to the beautiful arias there
were also purely comical pieces, best of which were performed by Mamma Agata
(baritone Marek Gurbal’). You have to be an excellent singer to be able to sing
so badly. He was also a great actor: he made Agata a funny, but profoundly human
character.
This opera was
actually full of borrowed parts from other works. Even the overture was
borrowed from another opera by Donizetti (Rosmonda d’Inghilterra) and there were
arias from Don Pasquale, Martha (von Flotow), Giustino (Vivaldi) and there was even
an extract from the ballet “Giselle”, where Mamma Agata played a central part
(superfunny!).
Jiří Hájek as Daria’s husband Procolo and Miloš Horák in the small role of the impresario did
well, too. I also liked Igor Loškár as
the composer. I have to say based on these two operas in Prague that Czech
Republic definitely has plenty of good male singers!
 |
| The Estates Theatre |
 |
| Interior |
 |
| The performers |
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti