Laterna magika

Without uttering a word on stage, the main character tells fantastic stories that are hard to believe, yet literally true. In an interminable narration, he dances the tango with an angry bull, rescues a flying ray from intrusive fishermen and gets to roam the vast ocean depths with the ray as a reward. Ravens are the most loyal friends of the tireless storyteller, and he engages in long discussions with them. Yet he still finds himself in a country where saying anything that is not a proven fact is forbidden under a strict penalty.

The multimedia production The Fabulous Baron combines film projections with a comic and large-scale puppets. Live music is an essential component of the production as background to the artists’ performance. Laterna magika's Baron is based on familiar characters such as Till Eulenspiegel from German medieval myths; Baron Munchausen from a novel by Gottfried August Burger; Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver; Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra, or the father figure from the tale Cinnamon Shops written by Bruno Schulz. 

The Estates Theatre is inseparably linked with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The composer has visited Prague couple of times to compose and give concerts here, and in 1787 he presented his opera The Marriage of Figaro in the Estates Theatre.

Under the impression of its enthusiastic reception Mozart composed the Don Giovanni opera for Prague, and personally conducted its world premiere in the Estates Theatre. The opera was an immense success and that is how Don Giovanni and the Estates Theatre have entered the history...

The Estates Theatre was one of the locations in the famous film Amadeus by Miloš Forman. Although the name of Mozart shines the most brightly in the history of the theatre, the Estates Theatre allured many other distinct artists of Europe-wide significance.

Carl Maria von Weber was a musical director of the Theatre; the violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini gave a concert here; Arthur Rubinstein, Carl Goldmark and Gustav Mahler conducted at the theatre. Other famous personalities are i.e. the actors W. A. Iffland, F. Raimund, J. N. Nestroy, W. Scholze, I. Aldrige and many others.

The Estates Theatre was extremely important for the Czech theatre. From the pioneers such as the Thám brothers, to V. K. Klicpera, J. K. Tyl, J. J. Kollár, etc., the generations of leading creators and artists presented their plays here. The first Czech modern opera, Škroup’s The Tinker, was presented here in 1826.

The play Fidlovačka by J. K. Tyl and F. Škroup, premiered here, includes the song “Kde domov můj” (Where is My Home), which would later become the Czech national anthem. In the Estates Theatre you can see opera, drama and ballet performances.