Danube Cruise Day 2: A night at the opera

 Mozart debuted his opera Don Giovanni at the Prague Estates Theatre in 1787, a short walk from our hotel. We saw his Cosi Fan Tutti, sung in Italian with Czech and English translations on screens. The hall was exquisite.

I've taken a lot of ceiling pictures in the past 24 hours.

We sat on the main floor in the third row. I fantasize sitting in one of those balcony boxes, where the wealthy always sit in stories where they can gossip or remain incognito in the darkness at the back while they peruse the crowd below.

They can do all that because the story of the opera is not worth paying attention to. In this one a cynical older man claims that women are fickle. His two young companions are sure their lovers would be true. They make a bet, tell the girls the men have been called off to war and then appear in disguise and try to seduce them. Apart from my Christian sensibilities which said the whole thing was twisted and my common sense that said it was silly, my 21st-c self was uncomfortable. As one woman said at intermission, in a day of #MeToo, "Should I be enjoying this?" 

The music was 18th c, but the costumes were spare and modern, or at least, semi-modern. The women's trains reminded me of Art Nouveau style of the Municipal House. The servant (by far the most engaging character) was dressed similarly to the servers in our hotel restaurant in a simple button shirt and straight skirt. Actually, she reminded me very much of a Brazilian friend, Eunice.

Opera is much more engaging performed than just sung, but I wouldn't say this made me a fan, mainly because of the foolishness of the story. But the hall! That is another matter.

We walked home through this medieval arch.

Past this street musician, playing classics on Bohemian crystal goblets.

Tomorrow the castle. Expect more ceiling pictures. :-)