Prague Music Orchestra – Frantisek Pok, conductor; O. Jelinkova – soprano. May 20, 2018.

Smetana Hall, Municipal Building, Prague.  Orchestra B (Seat 21-10, CzK 950).

Program – Strauss, Mozart, Dvorak & Opera with Ballet.

When we planned this trip we found out, somewhat to our chagrin, that both the opera and concert seasons would be over by the time we come to Prague.  That, of course, refers to the major organizations such as the Czech National Symphony or the State Opera (not sure what the actual names are.)

Of course in many major European cities there are always concerts and operas going on, some of them designed for tourists and marketed heavily – Vienna is a good example.  Turns out Prague is similar, in many tourist spots (e.g., Republic Plaza) there are ticket booths for these sort of concerts.

When it comes to Czeckoslavia (we are of course talking the Czech Republic) the composers Smetana, Dvorak, and Janacek come to mind.  If one digs deeper, the names Suk and Mahler would also come up.  We had a chance to see Turnadot, but decided not to as we had an early flight the next day.  However, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see Smetana Hall, and thus bought tickets to this event.  The tickets cost about US$40 each.  A tourist trap, no doubt, but – as someone reminded me – we are tourists.

The concert was reasonably well attended, I would say 40% full in a hall that seats about 1250 (per Wikipedia.)  And it appears to host some world-class events also.  For instance, David Robertson would be conducting the Czech Philharmonic in a June 1 concert as part of the annual Prague Spring series.

The program tonight, however, was mostly familiar favorites.  The orchestra was small, maybe 14 people total, and there was a piano that sometimes was used as a continuo instrument.

When they first got started with the Magic Flute Overture I said to myself “uh uh” as the two first violins were not quite in sync.  To my relief things got better soon afterwards, and I got to appreciate how good the acoustics in the hall was.  Every now and then ballet dancers would come out and perform.  There was this little girl (perhaps 8?) who was quite impressive.

Jelinkova did quite a few songs.  (It may not be Jelinkova, as the program lists three possible alternates.)  Her voice is quite strong, but a bit muffled, probably due to where she stood on the stage.

Curtain Call.  Soprano Jelinkova is on the left in this photograph.

I am sure one can connect the pieces performed somehow to Czechoslovakia, I would have preferred more direct references.  How about some excerpts from The Moldau, we are in Smetana Hall, after all.

Overall, we were glad to have attended this concert.  And it was indeed an hour in duration, as advertised; the Magic Flute overture counts as Opera.

With this, our 4-city 8-concert European Concert Tour concludes.