National theater (Prague)

The National theater ( Národní divadlo ), located at Prague is most famous Théâtre of the Czech Republic. Its cultural importance and symbolic system is central in particular in the hundred last years of the history the Czech nation in second half of the 19th century at the time of the Czech national Renaissance.

History

The National theater is one of most important cultural institutions the Czech. In the middle of 19th century, whereas Prague is not any more that the capital of the States of the crown of Bohemia for a long time vassal of the Germanic Roman Holy roman Empire then Austro-Hungarian and whose elites are largely germanisées if not German, the alarm clock of the Czech national feeling shakes the town of its torpor. The National theater will be the catalyst, the symbol and the illustration of this rebirth of the Czech culture.

A national subscription is launched and the first stone posed the May 16th 1868, ceremony which gives place to what is, de facto, a political demonstration and a claim against the imperial capacity Viennese. The idea of the construction of a theater is born with the autumn 1844 at a meeting of Czech patriots and is implemented by František Palacký which subjects, the January 29th 1845 the project with the Parliament of the States of the crown of Bohemia, applicant “ the privilege of construction, furnishing, the maintenance and the direction of an independent Czech theater ”. This privilege is granted in April 1845. It will be necessary six years before is not based, in April 1851, Company for establishment of national theater with Prague and that a public subscription is launched which allows, one year later, the purchase of a ground on banks of Vltava facing the Château of Prague, site ideal even if the trapezoidal shape of the ground poses a challenge with the future architects.

The period of sourcilleux absolutism which follows the Printemps of the people slows down the preliminary draft temporarily: under the direction of F.L. Rieger, a temporary theater nevertheless is built in the south of the piece by the architect Ignac Ullman, it opens its doors the November 18th 1862. In parallel, a new generation (Sladkovský, Tyrš, Neruda, Hálek) takes the reins of the Company for the establishment of a national theater in Prague with a new energy and an ambitious plan. Under cover of a public competition, the architect Josef Zítek, professor with the technical school of Prague, is commissioned to draw up the plans of the National theater. Work starts in 1867, the first solemnly hones posed the May 16th 1868, the completed foundations in November of the same year and the construction of the carcass work heavy castings completed in 1877. Since 1875, a competition, whose broad outlines are drawn up by a special subcommittee under the direction of Sladkovský, is open for interior decoration: in a spirit Néorenaissance, it is a question of illustrating the Slavic Mythologie and the Czech history and of underlining a nationalist ideology. The prominent artists of the time harness themselves with the spot - the history of art will retain them under the name of the generation of the National theater.

The National theater opens its doors for the first time the June 11th 1881 in the honor of the visit of the archduke Rodolphe. Eleven representations follow following what the Theater closes again to make it possible to put a final key at decoration. It is during this final work that a fire is declared, on August 12th, 1881. It is perceived like a national catastrophe and a basic movement shakes the Czech company: in one month and half a million guldens are joined together for its rebuilding entrusted to the pupil of Zítek, the architect Josef Schulz who defend a great intention, the integration of the temporary theater, new theater of which remains only the frontage and of a block of houses belonging to Dr. Polák located behind the temporary theater - fusion which gives to the current theater its inimitable architecture, surprising and composite.

The D-inauguration takes place the November 18th 1883 with the opera Libuše of Smetana composed for the occasion. The building, equipped perfectly with its electric lighting and its scenic iron equipment, will serve without major modification during one century until April 1st 1977, when, after a representation of the Lantern of Alois Jirásek, it closes its doors for six years of work under the supervision of the architect Zdeněk Vávra. In addition to a radical interior recasting, the Theater is seen associating an appendix, a rather ugly paving stone of glass on the Národní avenue, which lodges the ticketting and the New Scene (Nová Siň) of famous the Magic lantern (Laterna Magika). It again opens its doors with the public in time for the centenary of the Theater, on November 18th, 1983 and a representation of Libuše de Smetana. Three artistic units occupy the principal scene there in turn: the national Opera, national Ballet and the National theater. These units also divide the Théâtre of the States (Stavovské divadlo, or took place the first of the Don Giovanni of Mozart) and the Kolowrat theater.

In a country of which one of dictions affirms “ such Czech, such musician ” ( Co Čech, to muzikant ), the National theater of Prague east one of the element-key who allowed the construction of an national identity, the assertion of a clean culture and the emergence of a federator musical language.

the German National theater

External bonds

Site (in English) of the National theater of Prague
Site of Laterna Magika
Site (in English) of the Opera of State of Prague
the National theater in detail

Simple: National Theater, Prague

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