Letter from Prague

I am calling this a "letter from Prague" as when I wrote this blog, I was in rehearsal in Prague for a Philip Glass opera called " In the Penal Colony". Today`s rehearsal was in a shell of a factory and aptly named the "Fabrika". Everyone was late to the rehearsal so I realize that the Czechs ideas about punctuality are not as structured as the Germans. Peter the conductor asked me if I would like a coffee and I replied yes not realizing that it would be "Turkish" type in a glass and you had better wait a few minutes for the grounds to settle otherwise you will have a mouth full of what feels like sand. You had to be careful where you walked as there were puddles of water and other more dangerous debris. The three pictures show from top to bottom, the stage, public, and a break outside during the rehearsal.

I purposely did not bring my computer as I wanted to be free to study and work on the opera as well as intensively study Czech. The computer is like the TV...It sucks the interest out of the day and you simply waste time passively speaking. I was able to get slake my thirst for news by picking up newspapers in Czech as well as the Herald international Tribune...In the paper "Dnes" on Saturday the 27th of May was an article about Czechs being required to have visas to visit the States but the Poles are not. The writer of the article had a question and that was to do with "What do we need to do to get the preferred status of Poland"? One of the so called requirements is to be a member of the "Coalition of the Willing", in other words have more than 300 soldiers in Iraq. The Czechs have 100 soldiers in Iraq as well as soldiers in Afghanistan but this is not enough to grant a "no vias status". I also think that the amount of Polish relatives in the States compared with the little country of the Czech Republic and corresponding amount of relatives has as much to do with getting preferred status. Here is an article in the English language Prague Monitor about the situation. I cannot believe the Poles also are not guilty of overstaying their visit to America.

back again from Prague

I got back from Prague last night or should I say early this morning around 3 AM. The performance finished at about 9:30 at the "Fabrika" and I wanted to go back to where I was staying at the Student dormitory Kolej Kajetanka of the Charles University (one of the oldest in Europe, the university not the student dorm) but Ivan the manager had not counted the money from the ticket sales. He asked me to come back around eleven PM so I had to schlepp with subway, streetcar and bus to where my car was parked at the Pyramid Hotel .The reason I was not parked at the dorm had to do with the fact that my car was stolen last November out of the parking lot, so the Pyramid being a couple of blocks east has a guarded parking place costing about 11 dollars a day and worth the security. I can always take the train from Hof where I live to Prague and spare the parking cost. If I want to get back fast as possible, as in this case to my teaching at a local High School today, it had to be the car. I picked up the car, went to the dorm as quickly as possible to get my suitcase, cooking utensils etc. and sped off in the direction I hoped would lead me back to La Fabrica, the place where the opera took place but Prague is not so easy. I followed along the Vltava river but suddenly I could no longer go straight but had to cross over the river. Then I was completely turned around. I finally had to ask a taxi cab driver to let me follow him to my destination. If you look at the link and can find the word Hradcany which is the famous castle, then up to the word Holesovice in the northeastern corner before the river, you can see approximately where I had to drive. I had to simply get to holesovice to the north and on the map it looks simple but in reality.....


The 28th of May, having a bit of time after a morning rehearsal, I decided to check out a vegetarian restaurant in the old city part of Prague. It is called the Lehka Hlavna which means the "Light Head" in Czech. I chose the "Pesto ze susenych rajcat s olivym ocejem a pecivem" which is sun dried tomatoes pesto with olive oil and bread for the Antipasto and then not being very adventurous had the recommended ( I found the restaurant on a website) stir fry eggplant etc. with cous cous which was excellent with a good house red wine to accompany the meal. The entire bill came to about 12 dollars including a fresh fruit bowl with chocolate mousse "ovoce fondue s cocola dovou" to dip the fruit in. I walked the 2 miles or so back to my room to work off the dinner. The best thing was that I had no idea where the address of the place was having naturally left all my maps back in Germany so when I got to the old city part of Prague, I dropped into an internet cafe and viola! there I found it.

The environment

An interesting thought about ecology:

The naturalist Aldo Leopold wrote more than 30 years ago: "One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds," Leopold wrote. "Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well — and does not want to be told otherwise."

Dr. Gibeau, ecologist, in reference to the proposed corridor for animals from Northwest Canada to the Northwest of the USA

"People who come here are just so awestruck by the scenery that they cannot understand its ecological problems" he said. "They say, 'How can there be trouble here?' But once you peel back the veneer, this place is like most other places, a human-dominated system."

We have a problem here now in Germany with a lack of bees due to the mono-culture of farms etc. I have not seen a single bee in my garden this spring which means that my apple trees may not produce any apples although they are blooming furiously....

recent review in German of a student of mine Steffen Schmidt

KONZERT IM GYMNASIUM Pianistin Elisa Prechtel und Sänger Steffen Schmidt begeistern Publikum

Festtagsfreude und Italien pur

Die MünchBürger veranstalteten jetzt in der Aula des Gymnasiums Münchberg einen Lieder- und Klavierabend, bei dem sich zwei junge Künstler aus der Region vorstellten: Elisa Prechtel, Klavier, und Steffen Schmidt, Bariton. MÜNCHBERG – Die Pianistin spielte sehr sicher und konzentriert, mit weichem Anschlag und, je nachdem es die Musik erforderte, sensibel, aber auch energisch zupackend. Gefühlvoll, jedoch ohne Sentimentalität trug sie Chopins Regentropfen-Prélude und sein Nocturne op. 9 Nr. 2 vor, bei diesem Aufhellungen und Verschattungen deutlich gegeneinander absetzend. Wechselnd zwischen zartem Träumen und leidenschaftlichem Aufwogen der Gefühle, die in der Musik liegenden Empfindungen als eigene verströmend, interpretierte sie Beethovens Mondscheinsonate. Die unterschiedlichen Stimmungen, die Joaquin Turina in seinen Miniaturas op. 52 schildert, die Ruhe eines schlafenden Dorfes, aber auch das Unheimliche nächtlicher Dunkelheit, dessen Schwinden bei Tagesanbruch, erste vorsichtige Schritte, dann sicheres, zügiges Ausschreiten beim Spaziergang und schließlich überschäumende Festtagsfreude ließ Elisa Prechtel ihr Publikum lebhaft mitempfinden. Über welche Vielfalt an Ausdrucks- und Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten sie verfügt, zeigte sie bei dem packenden, bewegten Vortrag der Stücke „Edgewater“ von Jim Brickman und „Manhattan Skyline“ von Jürgen Moser. Steffen Schmidt war sie eine einfühlsame, gut auf ihn abgestimmte Begleiterin. Der junge Sänger trug vor allem italienische Liebeslieder aus verschiedenen Epochen vor. Dabei zeigte er sich in der Tongebung sicher. Seine Stimme zeichnete sich durch Kraft, Volumen, Beweglichkeit und Modulationsfähigkeit aus. Letztere stellte er vor allem in der Arie „Ombra mai fu“ von Händel unter Beweis. Leicht, aber ohne die Töne zu verwischen, glitt sein Gesang in „Sally Gardens“ von Benjamin Britten die Tonskala hinauf und hinab. Die Ohrwürmer ,,Funiculi, funicula“ von Luigi Denza und „Santa Lucia“ von Teodoro Cottrau schmetterte er nicht einfach heraus, sondern differenzierte den jeweiligen Textstellen entsprechend in Lautstärke und Ausdruck. Diesen verstand er in jedes Lied zu legen, und zwar oft so, als gäbe er nicht die Empfindungen anderer, sondern eigene wieder. Dabei vermochte er sich im Laufe des Abends zu steigern. Die ganze Breite seiner Ausdrucksfähigkeit von verhaltener Melancholie und tiefer Sehnsucht bis zu starker Leidenschaft zeigte er in „Amarilli“ von Giulio Caccini. Am stärksten kam seinem Naturell die „Moritat vom Mackie Messer“ aus Brechts „Dreigroschenoper“ entgegen, deren Vortrag er durch Mimik und Gestik unterstützte. Das begeisterte Publikum applaudierte heftig, wofür sich der Sänger damit bedankte, dass er zwei Lieder als Zugabe wiederholte. Viel Beifall gab es für Elisa Prechtel und Steffen Schmidt.

multitasking and quiet

This is an interesting article in the NYT and it corresponds to what I have been thinking about lately. I need to get to a quiet place to really learn or read something. Get the computer off as well.

---

May 21, 2006

Editorial Notebook

Let's I.M. as You Read This

By CAROLYN CURIEL

I have the television tuned to a news channel as I write this, my voice mail box is spilling its contents over the speakerphone, and I pause occasionally to flip screens on my computer to check e-mail messages. Still, something feels missing. I think of the executive who positioned his office computer above a treadmill, so he could walk constantly, keeping fit as he ran a business.

The pursuit of maximum moments drives many a multitasking life and an often-distracted mind. Cabbies chat away on the cellphone, even though laws in many places forbid it. Pedestrians text-message, leaving it to others to navigate around them.

Studies show that people may pack the equivalent of 31 hours of activities into a 24-hour day by doing several things at once. That's impressive, although I wonder if any study has figured out how to count the tasks still being tackled during sleep, as the strands of things done too hastily or inattentively deprive us of real rest.

We think of America as a sleep-deprived nation, but we are becoming deep-thought deprived, too. A closed door does not stop interruptions, because we are packing the weapons that can shatter concentration or quiet contemplation. Our fingers are always on a button.

Multitasking did not begin with computers, cellphones or other wireless technology, of course, although they have kicked it up to progressively new levels of complexity. Before those gadgets came along, the TV tray encouraged people to choose entertainment or the evening news over the dinner table and conversation. Radios were put in homes and then cars, helping to fill the dead air that can accompany housework and long rides. We seem afraid to be alone with our thoughts.

I have been a determined multitasker for as long as I can remember, insisting on doing my homework before the television. It did not seem to hurt my grades, but I will never know. Now I am loath to completely shut off connectors to those outside my immediate purview. I might miss something, or someone might miss me. And that would be disastrous. Wouldn't it?

---

Back from Prague

Friday I took off to Prague to attend an intensive Czech language course. It normally starts in the afternoon till 5 PM and then Saturday for five hours in the morning and Sunday again for five hours. The participants are generally the same people from Germany and Austria. We have our little traditions such as on Friday evening after the first class we meet up and walk up to Kloster Shenk a restaurant that is situated in a Cloister for men that is still in service. I have not seen any monks but they tell me that they are there hidden from public view.
On the way back I stopped at a town called Krushevitze (phonetic spelling) which is a brewery town making the famous beer of the same name. The picture is of the restaurant I stopped at and had not only one but two types of dumplings, potato and bread that the Czechs are famous for. The other picture is of a tumble down house near the restaurant. You can see a sign on a stone post which says "na prodej" which means for sale. I just thought it looked interesting.

This morning I called up the reservations office of the student quarters where I usually stay as it is cheap and actually made a reservation in Czech without once having to speak English or German. Usually the people in the office can speak other languages so when they sense you are having a problem they switch. It is about time since I have been working on this language since 1999 and should have had it down long ago...

On wednesday I return to Prague and begin rehearsals for the Philip Glass opera "In the Penal Colony" which will have performances on the 29th and 30th of May.

an interesting website..friend of Tom Rebilas

This is a website of an interesting Australian soprano. take a look when you have a chance



angela denning