Ballet and Cut Glass

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(Friday a.m. note) Can you believe that Olivia left home a little after 8 and her son was born by 11? Now that is a very fast delivery! At breakfast this morning she and the baby were the topic of much happy discussion. It seems everyone was praying for a fast and safe delivery. Good news like this makes everyone so happy.

This afternoon Johanna came into the library. “I have two tickets to for the premier of a new ballet tonight that I can’t use. Can you use them, or do you have to work until eight tonight?”

We decided we could use them. Johanna is from Hungary and a student here. She said she often buys standing tickets for the opera and ballet. A standing ticket means you do not have a seat. If all the seats are taken, you stand at the back. If there are empty seats, you may sit in one of them. The tickets cost only 30 Kn. The exchange rate is 22.5 Kn to the dollar, so the tickets we bought from Johanna cost just a little over a dollar each.

Tonight’s performance is the world premiere of a new ballet entitled Baletomanie . The performance is presented as if a ballet company were in rehearsal and pieces from various famous ballets are presented thus giving a history of ballet from the 17th century to modern dance of today. Nancy [Well, that leaves out a lot! The ballet opens with two men on stage one on a bench overlooking a lake and the other leaning on the bench looking toward the back of the stage. There are wonderful bird/nature sounds much like a CD we have at home of the life on the mountain in the Shenandoah National Park. In fact, it may be that same CD but without the music portion. The man on the bench skips a pebble across the little lake and someone says ‘ouch’. Then a middle aged woman, obviously a former ballerina walks across the top of the water getting only a drop of two in her shoe. She sits on the bench and after a while feeds the birds. Then she feeds the man who goes into a deep sleep on her lap. When he ? awakes? he sees all this wild mix of a ballet going on around him. Dancers of all eras in costume are doing parts of many famous ballets. Then it switches and the three from that scene are directors and writers and choreographers preparing a new ballet. They discuss what will happen. So, it was like a play and a ballet rolled into one. The dialogue for most of the evening was in Czech with English subtitles. For about 15 minutes it was in English with Czech subtitles (why I don’t know). The rest was all dance. At the end of the ballet for about the last 30 to 40 minutes the dance was all modern and fabulous. The final 20 minutes were, in fact, hilarious. The four lead males dressed in long white skirts and danced as women and then went into almost gymnastic routines. It was unbelieveably fun.)

The performance was given at the Stavovske divadlo, the Estates Theater. The first performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni was given in this theater. It is a beautiful theater though not as ornate as the State Opera House. Unlike the State Opera House, I was allowed to take pictures inside. The only restriction was, “Please do not use a flash and do not take pictures during the performance.” There are 3 balconies above the floor level. There are also boxes along the sides. From the top it is a long way down to the stage. There are areas where it is difficult to see the stage. We stood and sat on the floor at the center in the back of the uppermost balcony and had an excellent view of the stage. Actually our view was much better than many, if not most, of the seats. Nancy said, “The next time I will take a small pillow with me to sit on.” The floor seating wasn’t something we would have chosen but it definitely was the best view from the upper balcony. For a $1. ticket, I would sit on the floor again to see such superior dance.

Besides the beauty of the dance I was most impressed at the athleticism of the dancers. Ballet is hard work and the dancers are good athletetes and in extremely good condition. How many men can pick a woman up, balance her on one hand and walk around a room two or three times before lowering her to the floor? How many women can dance for five or more minutes, spend a majority of that time on the tips of their toes, maintain their balance and make each move a flowing, graceful move from one position to the next? Nancy

The last dance of the performance was a long, very active dance by four young men and one woman. The dance lasted at least twenty minutes and it was non-stop and fast and funny ... a spoof on just about everything. The only prop was a park bench and was used to represent everything from a jail to a four-man bobsled, a queen’s throne to a park bench to take a nap on.

At the end there was long applause. The five dancers came out to bow to the crowd and we could see the young men were just dripping in sweat. There was as much activity, or more, in that last dance than in any football game any of us have ever seen. And the dance was done with no half-time and no time-outs. We were most impressed. The whole evening was a really great experience. We definitely plan to buy more tickets to more and more opera,ballet and marionette performances.

As we walked to the theater we passed a cut glass store. The Czech Republic is well know for the beautiful cut glass produced here. Kay, one of our high school classmates, asked us, by e-mail, about this glass. Here are some pictures the store allowed me to take.

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Photos

The Theater
The interior of the theater is very beautiful.

Cut glass
The Czechs are famous for the cut glass they produce.

Comments

[anonymous]

Greetings!
The color scheme of the theatre is great! - Jameson Lewis III