Prague and Classical Music

I blogged about Prague a long while back (you may wish to click on the Prague 2011 label below for my past entries), but I forgot to mention that Prague was well-known as a music hub eons ago in the classical and romantic era. In fact, during a time when Mozart was supposedly neglected by Vienna, the city of Prague gave him support and it was also in this city that Mozart premiered his world-renowned operas "The Marriage of Figaro" and "Don Giovanni".

Mozart aside, Prague was home to other famous Czech composers such as Dvorak and Smetana. I know the photos above don't seem to gel with the title of this post or music for that matter. Well, I was pointing at the painting because I was surprised that this art piece was done by Dvorak! I never knew that beyond his musical talent, he was a respected artist in his own right too.

I was fascinated by how the painting could portray sunlight streaming in from the window before bouncing off the face of the subject. It looked like a photograph! I can't begin to tell you how much I adore the interplay of light.

Music is a central part of my life and whenever I travel to Europe, I will make a point to attend a concert or opera. I attend operas in Singapore as well, but personally, it feels a little odd to watch Asian opera singers singing in Italian.

While we were in Prague, we booked tickets to Carmen at the Prague National Opera House. It was such a popular performance, almost all the seats were sold out, hence we were extremely lucky to get one of the last few box seats!

The performance was magnificent and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Here's a short clip of what the opera sounds like. I'm sure it's a tune that everyone would be familiar with!

When I get back to Sydney, I hope to book tickets to watch an opera at the Sydney Opera House too!