State Opera House Prague – only a five-minute walk from the hotel

The State Opera House Prague, a renowned and beautiful theatre which is home to opera and ballet ensembles, is one of the most significant musical stages in Europe. It resides in a charming building of the former New German Theatre, built in 1888. The theatre has a very rich artistic tradition, having hosted many world-famous conductors, directors and singers. Its core repertoire consists of successful productions of works by the most popular personalities in opera, such as W. A. Mozart, G. Verdi, G. Puccini and G. Bizet. Artists such as Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, Gustav Mahler, Lilly Lehmann, Alexander Zemlinsky, Georg Szell and Richard Strauss have performed in the Prague State Opera in the past.

The Neo-Renaissance building, with its spacious auditorium and Neo-Rococo decoration, is really one of the most beautiful in Europe. The architect of the Vienna Municipal Theatre, Karl Hasenauer, participated in designing the Prague State Opera, while Prague architect Alfons Wertmüller took part in the construction.

The State Opera House Prague Ballet came into existence at the beginning of the 2003/2004 season, when the Prague Chamber Ballet was integrated into the State Opera ensemble, and new members as well as permanent external collaborators were hired. A medium-sized ensemble was thus formed, with Pavel Ďumbala appointed as its head.

In terms of style, the State Opera ensemble is capable of performing all three main currents: classical as well as neoclassical ballet, and modern dance. Classical ballet in its purest Petipov form is represented by Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, choreographed and directed by Pavel Ďumbala and Hana Vláčilová, while Prokofiev’s Cinderella, choreographed by Pavel Šmok and Pavel Ďumbala, lies somewhere between the classical and neoclassical styles. Neoclassicism is represented by Libor Vaculík’s full-length staging of The Lady of the Camellias, inspired by the well-known novel by Alexandre Dumas, Jr., A Midsummer Night’s Dream, based on Shakespeare’s immortal comedy, and the ballet form of Gaston Leroux’s romantic horror story The Phantom of the Opera. Modern dance principles are reflected in the first dance rendition of the entire My Country symphonic cycle by Bedřich Smetana, choreographed by Ján Ďurovčík, and in the staging of Time of Pain, choreographed by Bronislav Roznos, head of ballet in the German city of Zwickau.