Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Left
Karel ≥apek
Centre
Franz Kafka and his fiancé
Right
Václav Havel
Writers and Composers
Franz Kafka
Although he wrote in German
and almost none of his work was
published in his lifetime, Franz
Kafka
is
Prague. Many of his
disturbing novels seem to
foresee the Communist years.
His peripatetic wanderings across
this city, brooding features and
death by tuberculosis all add to
the mystique.
Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart
Prague and Vienna continue to
duel over the musical genius's
legacy, with the Czechs always
claiming that Mozart loved them
better. The composer premiered
his opera
Don Giovanni
in
Prague's Estates Theatre
(see
p65)
and Prague residents
mourned spectacularly upon his
death in 1791. Regular Mozart
concerts are held in the city.
Gustav Meyrink
Almost completely unknown
outside Austria, Meyrink is
nevertheless responsible for one
of the city's most marketable
notions: the Golem. He penned
the story of the clay monster,
that was supposedly locked up in
the Old-New Synagogue, in 1914
and attributed its creation to the
real Rabbi Loew
(see p52)
.
Bed∫ich Smetana
The composer wrote his
opera
Libu√e
, based on the
legendary princess, for the
reopening of Prague's National
Theatre in 1883. Smetana vies
with Antonin Dvo∫ák for the title
of best-loved Czech composer;
the former's ode to beer in
The
Bartered Bride
gives him a
certain advantage.
Karel ≥apek
This Czech writer is best
known for his science fiction and
psychologically penetrating
novels. With his 1921 play
R.U.R.
(Rossum Universal Robots)
he
gave the world a word for an
automaton, based on a Czech
word for “forced labour .
Jaroslav Ha√ek
A notorious joker and the
author of the celebrated dig at
the Austrian army,
The
Adventures of the Good Soldier
◊vejk
, Ha√ek was also the
creator of the satirical Party for
Moderate Progress Within the
Bounds of the Law.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
44
