Informationen und Bilder über Liberec (Reichenberg) - František Xaver Šalda Theater

Home

František Xaver Šalda Theater
Walking past the grand building of Liberec Town Hall takes one to the second part of the town's main square. The houses one can see here were erected in the 1880's  and 1890's to form a surprisingly balanced urban and architectural entity dominated by the Liberec theatre building. The story of Thespian activities in Liberec began in the later half of the 17th century in the form of allegorical religious performances. However, it was already in the 1660's that touring troops arriving in the town introduced it to secular theatre plays. Yet it was not until 1820 that Liberec saw its first theatre erected on the initiative of the local guild of drapers, on a site now occupied by Sokolské náměstí (square). After the theatre had been destroyed by fire in 1879, theatrical life moved to a provisional wooden facility, which in 1881 was forced to make way for a new building then under construction, today's František Xaver Šalda Theatre , which took his name from a prominent Czech Literary critic and native of Liberec. The Liberec Theatre was erected at a time when the boom in this specialized branch of the building industry was reaching its height in the Czech Lands. Theatre design  - whose importance in Central Europe at that time spread beyond Austria-Hungary - was dominated by two architects working as a team, Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer. The plan of the Liberec theatre was there second joint for an Opera house in Bohemia.

The exterior of this two-stored Neo-Renaissance building is adorned with works created by the viennese sculptor Reinhold Völker. The attic gable of the projecting part of its facade is dominated by an allegorical scalptural group depicting Art disseminating the flame of Education and Apollo with a lyre.  facing the Pošta Café statues of the Goddess Flora and the Muse Thalia, and a statue of Melpomene, the Muse of drama, gaze down on the square, while the opposite side of the building displays statues of Terpsichore, the Muse of choirs and dance; Fortuna, the Goddess of fortune; and Erato, the nimble-footed Muse of love poetry and joyfull music. The steps in fron of the main entrance were adorned by sculptures depicting fabulous griffins, until they were removed after 1945. These innocent monsters - mistakenly regarded as symbols of Germaneness - fell victim to then prevalent dislike for everything considered German. Four staircases lead to the entrance lounge, the ceiling of which rests on two massive marble columns. The landings of two of the staircases-those leading to the foyer - are embellished with bronze statues of two putti bearing a four-arm candlestick. The theatre boasts a Neo-Baroque auditorium, its walls and balcony ledges splendidly decorated with stucco, an exquisite combination of white and gold. The ceiling above the auditorium features allegorical frescoes, the work of the Viennese painter Heinrich Löffler, depicting four kinds of music - joyful, amatory, military and classical - symbolizing at the same time the four seasons of human life. The most remarkable feature of the theatres decoration and furnishings is undoubtedly its painted curtain, the work of two undergraduates of the Vienna School of Arts and Industry - Franz Matsch and the then 20-year-old Gustav Klimt, the future world-famous Art Nouveau painter - who were recommended for this task by the buildings architects. In putting the finishing touches to their work they were assisted by Gustavs brother Ernst. The motif of the curtains central scene is the Triumph of Love, representing the merry face of theatrical art, whereas the figures located in the front embody serious art. From the theatres opening until 1938 a permanent German theatre company was engaged for all stage operas, operettas and plays performed there. Since 1945 the theatre has booked Czech Opera, drama and ballet companies, and for one season it also drew on the services of an operetta company based in nearby Jablonec. Also since 1945, the theatre has been using the building og the former people's house on Zhořelecká Street, where in 1989 the so called Small Theatre was opened after renovation. The theatre's current company, a competent and artistically mature team, offers attractive contracts to many guest directors specialized in drama, as well as to those specializing in puppet theatre, such as the director Tomáš Dvořák from Plzen who, together with the visual artist Ivan Nesveda and the playwright Iva Peřinová, is striving to breathe new life into the old principles of puppeteer. Their joint project, a comedy entitled "The headless knight", proved so successful that it was nominated for the Alfred Radok foundation prize in 1993. The same team of theatre experts has staged a number of other successful performances, thus enhancing the fame and prestige of their theatre. However, the Liberec Naive Theatre's popularity extends beyond domestic audiences: every year it undertakes tours of foreign countries, which in the past decade have taken it to Mexico, India, Canada and Pakistan, in addition to a number of European countries. Moreover, its facilities have become the venue for Mateřinka, a traditional festival of professional puppet theatres , attended by foreign guests. Held in June every other year, it features performances for preschool children.

Iva Peřinová, Jiří Untermüller