The Three Musketeers and Me

Dmitry Krymov started his career as a stage designer working for his father, the famous director Anatoly Efros, and prepared designs for over a hundred productions in several Russian theatres. In 2002, he started to teach at the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) but was forced to leave after signing an open letter condemning the annexation of Crimea. During his stay in Philadelphia, he denounced the Russian invasion to Ukraine and refused to return to his homeland. When his production Mozart. Don Juan. Dress Rehearsal, staged at the Fomenko Workshop Theatre, won the Golden Mask Award in April 2022, Krymov dedicated it to the editor-in-chief of the independent daily Novaya Gazeta. In the same year, his productions were withdrawn from the repertoire (with two exceptions where, however, the director’s name was deleted). In October 2022, Krymov announced opening of his new studio in New York City – Krymov Lab NYC.

For his original production prepared specifically for the Estates Theatre, Krymov found inspiration in the custom of bedtime reading, as well as in the worlds conceived by Alexander Dumas in The Three Musketeers and Jules Verne in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. The director, known for radical adaptations of classics, employs his peculiar style of visual theatre loaded with surprises and metaphors to portray a fragile memory of the close bond between the grandmother, her little grandson, and his parents.

The Estates Theatre is inseparably linked with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The composer has visited Prague couple of times to compose and give concerts here, and in 1787 he presented his opera The Marriage of Figaro in the Estates Theatre.

Under the impression of its enthusiastic reception Mozart composed the Don Giovanni opera for Prague, and personally conducted its world premiere in the Estates Theatre. The opera was an immense success and that is how Don Giovanni and the Estates Theatre have entered the history...

The Estates Theatre was one of the locations in the famous film Amadeus by Miloš Forman. Although the name of Mozart shines the most brightly in the history of the theatre, the Estates Theatre allured many other distinct artists of Europe-wide significance.

Carl Maria von Weber was a musical director of the Theatre; the violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini gave a concert here; Arthur Rubinstein, Carl Goldmark and Gustav Mahler conducted at the theatre. Other famous personalities are i.e. the actors W. A. Iffland, F. Raimund, J. N. Nestroy, W. Scholze, I. Aldrige and many others.

The Estates Theatre was extremely important for the Czech theatre. From the pioneers such as the Thám brothers, to V. K. Klicpera, J. K. Tyl, J. J. Kollár, etc., the generations of leading creators and artists presented their plays here. The first Czech modern opera, Škroup’s The Tinker, was presented here in 1826.

The play Fidlovačka by J. K. Tyl and F. Škroup, premiered here, includes the song “Kde domov můj” (Where is My Home), which would later become the Czech national anthem. In the Estates Theatre you can see opera, drama and ballet performances.