Estates Theatre

Listen for a moment. Footsteps on cobblestones, the clink of cups from a café nearby, and somewhere a busker tuning a violin. In front of you stands a pale green and cream building with white columns and a calm, balanced face. It does not shout for attention. Yet inside these walls, one of the most famous operas ever written was heard for the very first time. Welcome to the Estates Theatre, in the heart of Prague's Old Town.

The theatre opened in 1783. It was the project of a wealthy Bohemian nobleman, Count Franz Anton Nostitz-Rieneck, and for its first years it carried his name, the Nostitz Theatre. The count wanted a grand stage for Prague, one that could stand beside the court theatres of Vienna. He paid for it himself. That was unusual. In those days, theatres like this were usually built by kings, not by private patrons.

Look up at the front of the building. Above the entrance you can find a Latin inscription: Patriae et Musis. It means "to the homeland and to the muses." The muses were the goddesses of the arts in ancient Greek belief. So the message is simple. This house was built for the country, and for art. Over the next two centuries, both halves of that promise would be tested.

The architecture is neoclassical. That is a style from the late eighteenth century that borrowed from ancient Greek and Roman temples, with clean lines, columns and calm symmetry. After the heavy, curling Baroque churches you may have seen around Prague, this building feels almost quiet. Notice the rounded corners and the rhythm of the windows. It was designed to look rational and modern, a building of the Enlightenment.

Now for the story that brings people here from all over the world. On 29 October 1787, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart stood in front of the orchestra in this theatre and conducted the premiere of his opera Don Giovanni. It tells the story of a charming, reckless seducer who is finally dragged down to hell by the statue of a man he killed. Prague loved it. The city had already embraced Mozart with enthusiasm, and he had a special affection for Prague in return.

Here is something many visitors miss. This is one of the very few theatres still standing where Mozart himself performed. Many opera houses of his era burned down or were rebuilt beyond recognition. This one survived. When you sit inside, you are in the same room, under the same arrangement of tiers and boxes, where the audience first heard Don Giovanni. Mozart returned to Prague again, and in 1791 another of his operas, La clemenza di Tito, also had its premiere here.

Before you go in, look near the entrance for a strange figure. It is a sculpture of an empty, hooded cloak, with no body inside. This is the Commendatore, a work by the artist Anna Chromy. It refers to the ghostly statue in Don Giovanni, the stone guest who comes to dinner and takes the hero to his fate. Walk around it. From some angles the cloak looks heavy as stone. From others, it feels hollow and haunting.

In 1798 the theatre was bought by the Bohemian Estates, the assembly of nobles who represented the land. That is how it got the name it carries today, the Estates Theatre. Through the nineteenth century, it became a centre of music and drama in the city. Performances were given in German, the language of the ruling class, but also, more and more, in Czech. And that second language would soon matter enormously.

In 1834, a Czech play with songs had its premiere on this stage. One of those songs began with a gentle question: "Where is my home?" In Czech, Kde domov můj. The words were written by the playwright Josef Kajetán Tyl, and the music by František Škroup. Nobody in that audience could know it. But that small song would later become the national anthem of the Czech Republic. It was first heard right here.

The building has changed names more than once. After the Second World War, it was renamed the Tyl Theatre, in honour of that same playwright. It kept this name for decades, through the communist period. Only after the political changes of 1989 did it return to its old title, the Estates Theatre. Today it is one of the stages of the National Theatre in Prague, and it still presents opera, ballet and drama.

If you have seen the film Amadeus, this place may feel familiar. The Czech-born director Miloš Forman filmed opera scenes inside the theatre, because it still looked so close to the world of Mozart. Inside, the auditorium is shaped like a horseshoe, with rows of boxes rising in tiers. The colours are blue, cream and gold. Even from the back, you feel close to the stage. That intimacy is part of its charm.

Take a look around the square as well. The theatre stands beside the Fruit Market, an old trading space in the Old Town. Next to it rises the Carolinum, the historic heart of Charles University. Students, tourists and office workers cross this square all day. Stand at the far side and you can take in the whole facade at once. In the evening, when the lamps come on and the doors open for a performance, the square fills with people in their best coats.

So, before you walk on, stay here a moment longer. Look again at the columns, at the Latin words above the door, at the empty stone cloak keeping watch. More than two centuries of music have passed through those doors. Somewhere inside, an orchestra may be rehearsing right now. As you leave the square, listen once more to the city around you. The busker, the bells, the footsteps. Prague has always been a city that listens.