The Marriage of Figaro
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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.