A Czech theatre institution with four ensembles and four stages, and its historic building on Národní, opened in 1881 and, after a fire, again in 1883.*
The National Theatre (Národní divadlo) is a Czech theatre institution based in Prague and, at the same time, its historic building at the corner of Národní and Masarykovo nábřeží.[3][4] The institution consists of four artistic ensembles (Opera, Drama, Ballet and Laterna magika) and four stages: the National Theatre, the State Opera, the Estates Theatre and the New Stage.[2] The opera, drama and ballet ensembles perform in the historic building.[1]
Origins and fundraising
Among Prague patriots the building of an independent Czech theatre was discussed from the autumn of 1844. On 29 January 1845 František Palacký submitted to the Estates committee of the Bohemian Diet an application for a privilege to establish and operate it, which was granted in April 1845.[1] In April 1851 the Committee for the Establishment of a Czech National Theatre called for public collections. With the first proceeds it bought a year later the plot of the former salt house on the bank of the Vltava, with an area of less than 28 ares, whose trapezoidal shape made construction difficult.[1]
The first competition for the design was held in 1854 and was won by the Viennese architect Froehlich, but no building followed.[4] On the southern part of the plot the modest building of the Provisional Theatre was built, opened on 18 November 1862.[1] Performances were held in it for 21 years.[3] A new competition in 1866 was won by the architect Josef Zítek.[3][4] Construction work began in 1867, and on 16 May 1868 the foundation stones were laid in a ceremony; the event became a nationwide political manifestation. In 1877 the theatre was under a roof.[1]
Collections from Bohemia, Moravia and abroad, the nobility, entrepreneurs and municipalities contributed to the construction. Emperor Franz Joseph I first donated 5,000 gulden and later a further 13,000, and the national lottery of 1877 raised more than 238,000 gulden. Total income from 21 August 1850 to 30 June 1884 amounted to 3,204,129 gulden.[1]
The fire and reopening
The theatre was first opened on 11 June 1881 in honour of the visit of Crown Prince Rudolf. After a further 11 performances the building was closed for finishing work, and on 12 August 1881 a fire broke out in it, destroying the copper dome, the auditorium and the stage. A million gulden was collected for the restoration within 47 days.[1] Negotiations with Josef Zítek ended in failure, and the restoration was entrusted to his pupil Josef Schulz. He incorporated the building of the Provisional Theatre and the neighbouring tenement house into the structure and altered the auditorium for better visibility of the stage. The theatre was reopened on 18 November 1883 with Smetana's opera Libuše.[1]
The building
The monument catalogue of the National Heritage Institute states that the building consists of three parts of different ages: the northern part, Zítek's building with the auditorium and stage, the middle part created from the Provisional Theatre, and the southern annex. Above the auditorium and stage is a four-sided dome supported by a steel truss structure. The sandstone façade is decorated, among other things, with statues of Apollo and the nine Muses by Bohuslav Schnirch and allegories of Drama and Opera by Josef Václav Myslbek.[4] In the foyer there is a triptych by František Ženíšek and the lunette cycle Vlast by Mikoláš Aleš; the curtain was painted by Vojtěch Hynais.[4]
Without major alterations the building served for almost a hundred years. On 1 April 1977, after a performance of Jirásek's Lucerna, the theatre was closed and a general reconstruction began under the architect Zdeněk Vávra.[1] It included the completion of the New Stage, operations buildings and underground garages.[3] The historic building was handed back to the public on the hundredth anniversary of its opening, 18 November 1983, again with a performance of Libuše.[1]
Ensembles
The theatre's first ballet master was Václav Reisinger in 1882-1884; after him the ensemble was directed by Augustin Berger, who also ran a ballet school at the theatre.[5] The opera, drama and ballet present the classical repertoire as well as contemporary Czech and world works, and on the New Stage Laterna magika mainly performs.[2]