Prague

Dear all,

Before you start eating your turkey, drink your champaign or … you can travel with me to Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, where I spent 4 days last weekend with Arjan and some friends.

Very pleasant city, situated at the Moldau river - depicted by the famous Czech composer Smetana - , even in the winter when it is cold. Since 1992, the extensive historic centre of Prague has been included in the Unesco list of World Heritage Sites, which proves its cultural importance. It has been heavily damaged during the 1992 floods of the Moldau river, but if you wouldn't know, you won't see it. It contains one of the world's most pristine and varied collections of architecture, from Art Nouveau to Baroque, Renaissance, Cubist, Gothic, Neo-Classical and ultra-modern.

We attended a concert by The Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band, with the famous American actor and film producer Woody Allen at the Kongresové centrum Praha. Personally I saw Woody Allen already playing with the same band in 2002 in Paris and I enjoyed him at that time as I did this time. I find it quite amusing that this odd man is playing in a jazz band. My friends stated that the price (more than Eur 100) was out of range in relation with the quality.
Woody visibly had some problems with his clarinet and was not always playing in tune with the others. Apparently he did not have the power anymore (it was not his first concert this tour) to play it correctly. This is what a Dutch newspaper is writing about this concert the day before in Amsterdam:
http://www.nrcnext.nl/opinie/columnaaf/article2101846.ece/Dit_deed_Woody_All
And who was that little shy girl at the end of the show grasping Woody at his trousers??

We also went to Manon Lescaut, an opera by Puccini, in the Prague State Opera, a beautiful decorated building. The opera was OK (again, if one compares the price <–> quality; less than what I am paying in Paris, and as a result - that is my personal point of view - the setting is also half of what one can expect in Paris): the soprano wonderful, the principal tenor missed - if one could hear him anyway - at the end the high tunes, quite surprising.


You still can view previous albums, but the one you may be interested in, is called "Prague 2008".
If you will visit the site in a couple of days again, you will find some pictures by Arjan, Hans or Harald.

If you wish you can start a 'Slideshow', from which you can choose the parameters yourself.

By accessing this feature via the way I indicated you, you should not receive any publicity spam of Photobox.

I wish all of you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !