International Puppeteers Unionn

Mezinárodní loutkařská unie


Union International de Marrionette

1994 Professional sphere – PhDr. Jan Dvořák

Czech Puppetry – recordman of the theatre after November

At Žatecká street 1, a theatrical miracle, a sort of perpetum mobile, is taking place since 1991:

the city, without financial input, offers children during mornings and on week-ends an abundant fairy-tale repertoire while in the evenings it presents the top work of our puppeteers to adults, primarily the European public. More than 2000 times the spectators had an opportunity to view the work of a genius, personally related to Prague, the opera of all operas, Mozart’s Don Giovanni in the form of a puppet show.

The lucky combination of an idea, the producion team of top artists headed by a director with excellent puppet actors, created an unusual piece of work. All this is amplified by the unique recording of the famous Baroque Theatre in Sweden’s Drottningholm, a recording of period instruments and in the instrumentation of Mozart’s times, appreciated at Žatecká even by experts such as Sir Charles Mackerras.

Dr. Jan Dvořák, Loutkář

 

Comtur punishes the libertine already two thousand times.

Don Giovanni by the Dvořák brothers already surpassed the number of years of the Christian calendar in the number of its repeat performances. The project of the enterprising siblings Daniel and Jan opened in June of 1991. The puppet production, based on Mozart’s world famous “Prague” opera under the direction of Karel Brožek, was part of the first year festival – Mozart Open. The success of Brožek’s production can be termed as sensational. If the unpretentious popular show, combining two cultural phenomena into one whole (i.e. the puppet theatre with the Prague first class understanding of the famous Mozart opera) enters the third millenium, we must think of the physically demanding drudgery of puppet actors who unconspicuously triumph here.

Jan Kerbr, Loutkář

 

W. A. Mozart: Don Giovanni, project by Daniel Dvořák and Jan Dvořák, production by Viktor Meska, direction by Karel Brožek, screenplay by Daniel Dvořák and Jiří Nekvasil, marionette design by Anna Cigánová, Recording Cat. No. 425943-5/2 courtesy of The DECCA RECORD COMPANY LIMTED, England, National Marionette Theatre, opening performance June 7, 1991.

The unforeseen take-off of the production series of the Don Giovanni marionettes eventually led to the origin of another two stagings under the auspices of the National Marionette Theatre – Gluck’s opera Orpheus and Euridice under the motto of Miraculous Theatre of the Baroque World (1993) and Yellow Submarine with the music of the Beatles (1995).