Magic Flute and Sleeping Beauty

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Now that Intensives are over and the students who live away from the school have returned to their homes IBTS is a much quieter place. No longer are we so busy filling requests and answering questions; no longer is the library open until nine each evening and so now we have a bit of time to PLAY. We did not want to commit the mortal sin of living in Prague for two months and not attending a concert, ballet or opera and so we avoided this sin by attending the opera, the Magic Flute, the ballet Sleeping Beauty and Sunday afternoon we are going to a new play on Golem. Golem is the mythical, at least we believe he is mythical, creature who lives under the streets of Prague and emerges to help Jews when they are in need.

There are many stories of Golem that originated in the middle ages, 5th century until the 16th century, all across Europe. The most famous golem stories involves a 16th century man, Rabbi Judah Loew the Maharal of Prague. He is reported to have created a golem to defend the Prague ghetto of Josefov from Anti-Semitic attacks. There are many stories about Prague's Golem who became increasingly more violent and finally he had to be destroyed .... although rumor has it that he can be resurrected when necessary. Nancy- Again, Bill and I had separate seats. I sat beside a mom, dad and 4 or 5 year old girl. She was absolutely fascinated by the theater, the music, just everything. She first sat in her own seat and then climbed on her dad's lap to see even better from a higher seat. She leaned forward and kept her little elbows and chin on the padded rail in front of us. When the most famous of the music was being sung she joined in with the soprano and sang the la, la, la,la, la, la, la. Her dad shushed her but she was too excited to stop. People behind her were smiling as if they thought it was enchanting and I did too. Other than joining with the song she was quiet and seemed supremely happy during the whole time. It's fun to see kids enjoying concerts!

To me the Magic Flute is good music set to a rather silly fairy tale. The story centers around the battle between enlightenment and ignorance. I guess the battle still continues and will as long as mankind is around.

Sleeping beauty not only has beautiful music, but beautiful dancing. I have never been a big ballet fan, but I have gained a deeper appreciation for the art since going to several ballets here in Prague. Television simply does not do ballet justice. The skill, balance and muscular development required are simply amazing. During attendance at the ballet you can see the muscular development that is hidden on the TV screen. The theater was quite full of children who had been brought by their parents and all seemed to enjoy the ballet very much. There was no wiggling or complaining, at least I heard none and all seemed happy during intermission and after the performance ended. Nancy- Humm! Well, I am a ballet fan. But in the USA I have seen only modern ballet shows and none of the traditional ballet performances. So, I am really impressed with this classical ballet. Last year we saw an ultra-modern performance here and it was also quite wonderful. The box in which I sat also had a mother and quite a young girl of about 6 years or so. I never saw the child move for the entire performance. She just sat and stared at the theater itself and at the dancers. From where I sat I could see that each box had one or several children all dressed up beautifully. They had really counted on this to be a very special occasion and their parents had also dressed up. So things were quite festive! At the break it seemed each parent and child bought a drink and/or some cakes or candy and ate and drank in pleasant surroundings talking nicely with each other. I saw no trantrums no whining, hear no complainy voices. It was much like our previous experience at the zoo. Czech parents seem to enjoy their children and doing very special things with them and the children seem to enjoy being with their parents. How lovely!

After leaving the theater Nancy and I wandered around for an hour or so. Bill needed a new belt ... his old one was simply a disgrace and we did fine one at a moderate price. Then, as we had not had lunch yet, Nancy took Bill to a restaurant where she ate with several visiting US friends last September. The service was slow, but after all this is Europe and there is no hurry in restaurants here. The food was good and the atmosphere was unlike any we have seen at home. Nancy--If Marilyn and friends are reading this blog, the restaurant we went to was the one the 'gang' of us enjoyed. We ate outside last fall and then one of us went to the toilet and discovered the lovely candles and enchanging downstairs with even an enchanting toilet! So all of us had to go to the toilet of course to see the pretty

And, finally to top off our day, on the way home, we stopped at a coffee shop for dessert of Honey Cake and hot chocolate for Nancy and a cup of expresso for Bill. Nancy--Since we had eaten like there would be no food in the future at the restaurant I should have known better than to get both honey cake and hot chocolate. I sort of rolled home.

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