The Marriage of Figaro

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April 2022 Next
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Cupid’s arrows fly around as they please, binding the seemingly incompatible and dividing the seemingly inseparable. Mozart’s philandering Count Almaviva, his neglected wife Rosina, the Countess’s pretty maid Susanna and the crafty, albeit occasionally naïve, valet Figaro know all too well … The new National Theatre production of Le nozze di Figaro has been created by two distinguished female artists: the English conductor Julia Jones and the Czech stage director Barbora Horáková Joly. 

 

The celebrated composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was fond of Prague and its Nostitz (today Estates) Theatre. He paid five visits to the city. During the first of them, less than a year before hosting the world premiere of his opera Don Giovanni in 1787, the Nostitz Theatre gave a performance of Le nozze di Figaro, with Mozart himself conducting. Mozart composed the opera to a libretto written by the Italian poet Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on the French playwright Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’s comedy La Folle Journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro, whose denunciation of aristocratic privilege and social inequality many have  characterised as foreshadowing the French Revolution. 

 

National Theatre Chorus
National Theatre Orchestra

 

WARNING: We use tobacco products during the performance.

Program and cast

Conductor: Julia Jones

Figaro: Michal Marhold

Count Almaviva: Pavol Kubáň

Countess Almaviva: Barbora Perná

Susanna: Ralitsa Ralinova

Cherubino: Martiniana Antonie

Marcellina:  Kateřina Jalovcová

Bartolo: Tomáš Šelc

Basilio: Josef Moravec

Curzio: Vít Šantora

Antonio: Roman Vocel

Barbarina: Marie Šimůnková

 

Creative team

Stage director - Barbora Horáková Joly

Assistant stage director - Maren Schäfer

Sets, videoart - Falko Herold

Costumes - Nicole von Graevenitz

Light design - Damian Chmie; larzIvo Dankovič

Choreography - Jan Adam

Chorus master - Lukáš Kozubík

Dramaturgy - Ondřej Hučín

 

Approximate running time: 3 hours 25 minutes, 1 intermission (20 minutes)

Language: In Italian, surtitles in Czech, English

Estates Theatre

The Estates Theatre today

 

The Estates Theatre is one of the most beautiful historical theatre buildings in Europe. It has been part of the National Theatre since 1920. The Opera, Drama and Ballet ensembles give repertory performances at the Estates Theatre.

 

History

 

The Estates Theatre is one of the most beautiful historic theatre buildings in Europe. Its construction was initiated by the enlightened aristocrat František Antonín Count Nostitz Rieneck, led by the desire to aggrandise his native city as well as the souls of its inhabitants. The construction lasted less than two years and the Theatre was opened in 1783. This project, extremely important for the Prague of the time, was in keeping with the zeitgeist of the late 18th century, a time when national theatres were being built at European courts, royal seats and cultural centres in the spirit of the Enlightenment idea that a generally accessible theatre is a moral institution demonstrating the cultural level of the nation.

The first, sporadic Czech-language performances took place in 1785. From 1812 onwards there were regular Sunday and holiday matinees. At that time, these performances became to a certain degree a political matter too. Thus arising in the difficult years following the failed revolution in 1848 was the idea of a Czech National Theatre.

 

 

By car to the National Theatre car park

To the centre (OldTown), approach on Masarykovo nábřeží (Masaryk embankment) in the direction from the Dancing House, at the crossroads in front of the National Theatre turn right to Divadelní street and then right again to Ostrovní street to the National Theatre car park. Parking costs 50 CZK/h. 

From there, walk to the Estates Theatre along Národní street, then 28. října street, turn left on to Na Můstku street and right to Rytířská street. 

 

Other nearby secure car parks:

Kotva department store (Revoluční 1/655, Prague 1), then walk along Králodvorská street to Ovocný trh.

Palladium department store (Na Poříčí 1079/3a, Prague 1), then walk along Králodvorská street to Ovocný trh, or to the Powder Gate through Celetná street to Ovocný trh.

 

By tram

By daytime trams Nos. 6, 9, 18 and 22 or night trams Nos. 53, 57, 58 and 59 to the stop “Národní třída”, then by foot along Národní street, then 28. října street, turn left to Na Můstku street and right to Rytířská street.

By daytime trams Nos. 5, 8, 14 and 26 or night trams Nos. 51, 54 and 56 to the stop “Náměstí Republiky”, then on foot around the Municipal House to the Powder Gate, on Celetná street to Ovocný trh.

By daytime trams Nos. 3, 9, 14, 24 or night trams Nos. 52, 54, 55, 56 and 58 to the stop “Jindřišská”, then on foot along Nekázanka / Panská streets, turn left to Na Příkopě street and then right to Havířská street (from Na Příkopě street you can also walk through the Myslbek arcade).

 

By metro

To the station “Můstek”, lines A and B (green and yellow), then on foot through Na Můstku street and right to Rytířská street.

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