Estates Theatre and Mozart

INFORMATION & DETAILS

The theatre is the fist building in Prague to be built in the neoclassical style. The count F.A. Nostic came up with the idea in 1776 to establish a theatre in Prague that would be able to compete with the one in Vienna at that time. The idea was approved of and the theatre was build 1781-1783 by Antonín Haffenecker. Mainly German plays were performed here, as the theater was designed rather for the nobility of the city than the average citizen. The main language of the Czech kingdom in that time was German, and as German financers controlled the theatre, only plays in German were staged here to please the majority of the audiences. The most significant event in the history of the theater is the world premiere of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni that was performed here on 29th October 1787, which the author himself conducted. However, after the death of count Nostic, the theatre was bought by the Czech Guild and was renames from Nostic Theatre to Stavovské (Estates) Theatre. From 1820 onwards the theatre started also scheduling performances in the Czech language and the theatre was quickly becoming Czech again as Czech culture was more and more popular. In 1834 the second most important event in the history of the theatre occurred when the play “Fidlovačka” (A Fiddle Game) was performed here. One of the songs of this play called Kde domov můj? (Where is my homeland) later became the Czech National Anthem.

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