Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1970 - 16

deal of Svoboda's work, especially when he
joins forces with a director like Radok (the
co-creator of Laterna Magika).
Perhaps the culmination of Svoboda's use
of theatre itself in his designs is the recent
Don Giovanni in Prague, 1969 (Figs. 911). Several historical facts are central to
the scenographic solution: Mozart composed
Don Giovanni in Prague and conducted its
premiere, also in Prague, in a theatre that
is still in use, essentially with the same interior decor as in Mozart's day; today it is
known as the Tyl Theatre and forms one of
the three units that comprise the National
Theatre. Svoboda had designed five previous productions of Don Giovanni, both in
Czechoslovakia and abroad, but this one was
to be different:
Svoboda's concept has the richness and
immediacy of a Shakespearian metaphor:
the Mozartian decor of the Tyl Theatre auditorium is extended onto the stage itself to
form the setti ng of the opera action. The
opera that was written in Prague, to a great
extent for Prague, and originally performed
in Prague, in this very theatre, is now performed not only in the same theatre but
within a setting that is a duplicate of the
theatre interior in which it was originally
performed and is now performed again. The
resultant effect, with its multiple reverberations, is dense and powerful and, above all,
uplifting in its absolute rightness. It is theatre in theatre, transcended. 2

(photo: Jaromir Svoboda)

The customary separation of stage and auditorium vanishes: the boxes nearest the stage
are repeated (more precisely, continued) on
the stage itself, and the acting area includes
the first set of auditorium boxes as well as
the stage. The rear of the stage is sometimes filled with period backdrops and sometimes with additional tiers of boxes; when
the latter occurs, as it does in the climactic scene of the ball, Svoboda's intention
achieves its strongest statement.
Svoboda's remarks suggest additional Implications inherent in his concept:
My primary goal was to express the unique Pragueness of the work rather than to employ any certain
scenographic approach or get involved with customary
scenic details.
.specifically, I saw the opera in the
context of the Tyl Theatre, where it had its original
premiere.

I deliberately used aged, period, somewhat deteriorated theatrical objects, props, even chandeliers. from
Mozart's time, and deliberately revealed old painted
backdrops and curtains between the boxes on stage
or else as total backdrops. I wanted to evoke the feel
of an old eighteenth-century theatre-the feeling of the
"ghosts" of theatre. A person with imagination really
feels the ultimate significance of a curtain; a theatre;
a stage; an auditorium; and their relationship-their
naive atmosphere, their simplicity and plainness, yet
the worlds that can be created there-the significance
and strength of theatre in the evolution of society.
Giovanni is.
.a model opera, pure, a work of genius. It's a jewel to begin with, and that's why I
wanted to treat it with the least fuss: a singer comes
forward and sings, the others simply stand and wait.
The result is an operatic holiday. The spectator
doesn't look for naturalism; he accepts it as a pure
theatrical work, specifically an opera-a pure experience. It doesn't pretend to be more or other than opera. For example, the grill-work fence functions in
several ways, conventionally it operates according 10
theatrical logic.

@:iICJ THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

FEBRUARY, 1970

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