Twelfth Night

Strange tidings come from the mysterious land of Illyria! Duke Orsino, a music lover, is tormented by his unrequited love for the beautiful Countess Olivia. Sadly, Olivia mourns the death of her brother and refuses to accept love from anyone until seven years have passed. Meanwhile, a merry group runs her court: the drunkard Sir Toby, Olivia’s cunning gentlewoman Maria, the irresistibly ridiculous suitor Sir Aguecheek, and the pompous puritan Malvolio, all overseen by Feste (or Clown), the witty royal jester. But one day, beautiful Viola is shipwrecked on the coast by the rough seas and starts a new life disguised as a young man named Cesario ... The plot thickens, taking unexpected twists and turns and spinning a whirlwind of misleading and mistaken identities. Yet one thing becomes clear: love knows no limits, though one can easily fall in hopeless love with the wrong person.

Illyria is an island of longing for those who suffer from chronic love and for the heartsick, where the turmoil of love – being both foolish and strong – is underscored with the ingenious game of hide-and-seek. Many a question thus arises, for which there is only one correct answer, reflected in the subtitle of the play itself: “What you will.”

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.