The Czech Christmas Children's Opera

The Estate Theater is one of the three major theaters in Prague.  I went to two shows there while I was in Prague and it was quite a lot of fun.  I stood in the standing section at the top so the shows were less than $2 each, which seemed like a pretty good deal.

The first show I went to was Jakub Jan Ryba's "Česká mše vánoční" or, Czech Christmas Opera, which was performed by the Children's Opera of Prague.  It was a lot of fun.  The story, from what I could tell (it was all in Czech) was the Nativity story where the village children are trying to convince the grouchy innkeeper that the little baby that was just born in the stable is Jesus.  They crossed themselves periodically and the also sang a version of the "Hallelujah" chorus at one point.  Also, I am fairly certain that some of the little children recited from Isaiah.  You could follow a little bit because some of the words sound the same--Israel, Joseph, etc.  Watching the audience was fun, as well.  There were lots of kids in the audience as well.    A lot of them were all dressed up and it was fun to see how excited they were to be there.

The Theater stage ready for the Czech Christmas Children's Mass.

There were four adults in the play/mass and a couple of dozen kids, ranging from 5 or 6 years old to their teens.  Everyone wore what I assume were traditional Czech costumes in blues and tans and whites, except Mary, who was dressed like a traditional nativity scene, including the giant halo.  The little kids were really cute.
 I found this article about the show which includes a couple of pictures and a you tube video of the opening song in the Mass called ‘Hej, mistře’.  It only lasts about 5 minutes and it is very pretty.  The article includes a little bit about the opera and about the composer as well.  Apparently, if you had been in Chicago this winter, you could have heard the US premiere of the music.  It felt very authentically Czech to go to this performance.  I had debated between doing this or going to The Nutcracker because then I would have been able to see one of Prague's other historic theaters but I am glad I decided on this.  If you want to hear the whole thing, most of it is on YouTube.