Mozart composed Don Giovanni for Prague
The famous Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, already considered a child prodigy in his time, enjoyed returning to Prague. He travelled through Czechia five times. At the age of 11, he found himself in Brno, to where he and his father fled to escape the smallpox epidemic in Vienna. The family also stayed in Olomouc; while he was in Brno he played in the Reduta Theatre at Zelný trh.
Already famous, in January 1787 the Austrian piano virtuoso arrived at Prague's Nostic Theatre (now the Estates Theatre) to conduct his opera The Marriage of Figaro. The people of Prague were overjoyed, and the whole city reportedly sang arias from Figaro. The master composer then declared: "My Prague people understand me."
Mozart then decided to compose his opera Don Giovanni for Prague out of gratitude and conducted its première in the same year. Mozart did not fare well after his departure from Prague in September 1791. He died in Vienna just three months later, forsaken and poverty-stricken. His remains were buried in a common paupers’ grave. The musical great was just 35 years old. "His" Prague citizens held a great funeral in his honour in St. Nicholas Church in Malá Strana.
Rare Mozart piano
In Prague you can follow in in Mozart's footsteps. He lived, for example, in house No. 14 in what is now Thunovská ulice. On his second visit to Prague he stayed at the U tří lvů inn near the Estates Theatre. He also stayed in the Bertramka, originally a vineyard house, which was later converted into a legendary estate. It’s said that Mozart loved to dance, play billiards and cards, and feast on roast chicken while he was composing. It’s also said that he took a liking to on backstreet wine bar in Prague’s Old Town. He used to sit at a wooden table, cutting splinters off it with his penknife to use as toothpicks.
The building where he used to visit in Prague for a glass of wine is no longer there, but you can stay in the luxurious The Mozart Hotel Prague, where the musical great once laid his head. The former count's residence boasts some magnificent murals, vaulted ceilings and fireplaces.
Prague also has one rare Mozart artefact: a real Mozart piano inlaid with mother of pearl. Since 1950 it has been in the collection of the Museum of Music, run by the National Museum in Prague.
Miloš Forman's Oscar-winning film Amadeus
The legendary composer made Czechia and Prague famous once more when an Oscar-winning film was made about him, Amadeus, shot by the Czech-born director Miloš Forman, who by then was living in America (the man behind cult films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest starring Jack Nicholson, the successful rock musical Hair and the drama Ragtime).
This amazing film portraying the feud between the brilliant composer Wolfgang A. Mozart and his rival, Antonio Salieri, eventually won eight Oscars, thirteen Oscar nominations and dozens of other awards, including four Golden Globes. The première in London was attended by Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and the scenes short in what was then socialist Prague, which stood in for Vienna, was overseen by the State Security forces.
Amadeus was filmed mainly in Prague, at Hradčany and in the streets of Malá Strana. Mozart performed before the Emperor in the , he borrowed masks for a masquerade ball in Nerudova ulice, an improvised marketplace was set up on Maltézské náměstí and Amadeus married Constanze in St. Giles' Church in the Old Town. The filmmakers built a sanatorium in Invalidovna in Karlin; scenes were also shot in the residence of the Archbishop of Prague, and outside Prague the crew headed to the Archbishop's Chateau in Kroměříž and the chateau of Veltrusy.
Richard Wagner loved northern Czechia
The German composer and playwright Richard Wagner was particularly enchanted by the Elbe Valley and the landscape of northern Bohemia. He fell in love for the love time in the now sadly dilapidated chateau in Pravonín in the Benešov region. He composed some of his works there, such as the libretto of his opera The Wedding.
He liked to return to the spa town of Teplice, and later stayed there with the whole family to take a break from the première rehearsals in Dresden. He climbed Milešovka mountain, roamed as far as Ústí nad Labem, and spent a few days on the rock above the river, now home to the romantic ruins of the Gothic castle of Střekov. The spot was also admired by Goethe, and would later inspire the libretto of Wagner’s famous opera Tannhäuser.
Střekov Castle is still a popular place for daytrippers today; there’s a Gothic restaurant and a terrace with a view of the Elbe Valley and the hills of the Central Bohemian Highlands.
Netflix, like Italy, was conquered by another Czech composer: Josef Mysliveček.
