Dreams under the Fountain
Jan J. Vaněk 1. January 2003 zdroj Signál
…The first Prague performance of Midsummer Nights’ Dreams at the Křižík’s Fountain attracted a lot of spectators who asked themselves: the musical itself is excellent as well as the fountain. Will the two artefacts count up in a new artistic experience a degree higher or will their connection just create a fair and touristic attraction? Well, the former is true: The Dreams acquired even higher emotional force at the fountain, the message brought to an audience is clearer and more lucid.
A long applause at the end of the ninety-minute performance (played without a break and in torrential speed) proved the enthusiasm provoked by the play: the actors had to add. Brno taught Prague a lesson how to make a musical...
Tradition of Midsummer Nights
Anna Vejvodová 19. June 1993 zdroj Telegraf
A year has run like water and we are very pleased to say that the Midsummer Nights’ Dreams started its second year with its restored first night at 10 p.m. yesterday after last year’s success on the Prague exhibition ground in co-operation with the Křižík’s Fountain …
…The performance is extremely recommended not only to everybody who has not seen it yet or has only seen it once (it is said two views are necessary – close and from distance), but also to the partners who are out: a joint visit of the performance welds married couples as well as lovers...
Dreams at the Fountain
Jaroslava Suchomelová 10. July 1992 zdroj Slovo
…Midsummer Nights’ Dreams is “a musical of a single song”, but the song is worth every minute. When Zora Jandová sings charmingly “…I am you and you are me…” it seems the audience has completely amalgamated with the interpreter. The applause of about one thousand seven hundred spectators who appeared at the fountain on the first Friday in July was long. It appreciated the evident hard work of actors during the ninety-minute performance and also proved that the spectators got what they had expected: rest, amusement and maybe, walking along their own dreams...
Superb Goblins at the Křižík’s Fountain
(cg) 25. June 1992 zdroj Právo
The clock strikes ten p.m., music sounds. The Křižík’s Fountain starts pouring out the first geysers of water and goblins are coming out of the underground. Midsummer Nights’ Dreams, musical after William Shakespeare’s play, start on the Prague exhibition ground. A story about malice, envy, jealousy, a story about coexistence of a man, a woman and a child each of them wants to usurp, a story of little mannikins – but it is also about us. A unique project was born which connects a theatrical musical form with the choreography of splashing pipes of the Křižík’s Fountain.
The actors of the Brno Municipal Theatre present splendid performances. They dance, sing, return to a confined space under the stage to come back again slowly and lightly and continue their story. Their masks make up fairy-tale magic. Each of them is admirable...
There Was a Surprise
Jiří Kratochvíl 22. June 1992 zdroj Mladá fronta
…The libretto succeeded. The text is harmonic, melic, the handwriting is of balanced structure …
…I am bowing to Zdeněk Merta. Nothing more but music is alpha and omega of musical – and undoubtedly, it is the strongest element of the performance … It is direct, but not cheap, always in the front, running naturally. As if you have known it, the music is pervading you, you are discovering it and the music seems new to you. With each scene it gets deeper and deeper under your skin… You will also be enchanted with luscious harmony and melody as well … Merta’s music feeds you with every bar, it is as synthetic as the whole show is …
…The performance of the whole Brno ensemble is rarely even, they all are in fact good actors, singers and dancers. A Czech musical was born. And it is worth seeing...
Brno “Dreams” with Four Eyes
Eva Rolečková 30. November 1991 zdroj Lidová demokracie
…The atmosphere of initial scene is impressive: romantic, mysterious forest with stylized jumbles of branches and roots where mysterious beings in impressive masks come up from the fog. In the craze of night, hate alters with fugacious loves and an ephemeral dream of harmony is floating above. A single spoken word is not pronounced in the whole musical, the stage expresses itself by singing, movement, light; it is a picture with musical background. Spectator’s perception is attacked very aggressively and – as it is evident from reactions of the audience – this aggressivity is welcome...
A Set Mirror
Jaromíra Trunečková 29. November 1991 zdroj Haló noviny
… In all respects, it is a remarkable performance … All performers dispose of good singing and moving abilities...
…The up-to-date musical with its allegories sets a mirror to the days we live, to reverse values, purpose aiming of truth and lie, love and hate. In one of the most impressive songs something like a credo of humankind is expressed: My world,/how great you are,/you have been / and you will be eternal;/ and even if you were disgusting / you are unique for me.
Shakespeare as a Pretence
Jaromír Malý 1. December -1
…The principal programme is rhythm, order, feeling. The melodies are kind, lovely, unconventional. They may be compared to Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. There are the motifs of Slavonic sensitivity in a wide range from the classics up to Janáček and Ježek. The songs “I Am You and You Are Me” or “My World How Great You Are” may soon become popular.
The dramatic and music performances are in a precious harmony with the other components influencing an audience. However, the fairy-like, magic vote of Zora Jandová rises high above the balance…
The direction attacks an audience with words, songs, motion, music, dance, humour, and colours. That is why, it is not possible to make an interval. You will be sitting for 90 minutes as transfixed to your seats and even after that you will not want to leave!…
Dreams Brought from Brno
Miroslav Mokoš 1. December -1 zdroj Slovo
Those who did not hesitate and went to the KÁ Theatre on Friday or Saturday to see an unusual guest performance of the Brno Municipal Theatre, surely did not regret…
…The musical fairy tale Midsummer Nights’ Dreams written by the director Stanislav Moša and the composer Zdeněk Merta after William Shakespeare’s play attracted the audience not only with its unusual direction, but also its imaginative scenic decor and remarkable performances of all actors. They managed to create an impressive show pleasing to the eyes and ears…
… The audience was given what it expected from the current theatre, i.e. the possibility of forgetting common troubles for a while and losing itself in dreams. Not only in those of the Midsummer Night.
A Beautifully Coloured Accord
jjv 1. December -1 zdroj Květy
It does not happen very often a single seat is not free, chairs from the backstage are moved to the auditorium and a lot of spectators stand in the aisles – The Brno Municipal Theatre giving a guest performance managed this tour de force in Prague. Since the Brno first night, the performance entitled Midsummer Nights’ Dreams had been preceded by a very good reputation and it should be said by way of introduction that the guest performances in Prague intensified its credit…
…Merta’s music is creative and does not forget of the melody with which a spectator wants to leave the theatre. In short, the Midsummer Nights’ Dreams is a kind of performance bringing back the faith in the present and mainly in the future of our theatre.
The Dreams Arousing Admiration
I. P. 1. December -1 zdroj Gramorevue
…Merta wrote a lot of brisk, clever and catching music, the ensemble of the Brno Municipal Theatre overcame itself and studied difficult parts in a way arousing admiration …
…The atmosphere is intensified with an imaginative stage setting which mediates an impression of harmony of human beings with the nature and with a choreography which is not aimed at dances but an expressive movement of which stage characters are born. And if the dramatic performances are so good and expressive (the author of libretto, Stanislav Moša is a director at the same time), then it is clear that the performance is good, even superb …
…Merta is a melodist, which is rare today. And he can make such music that listeners’ fingers, hands and legs start to play. He can also write the music which respects the principle of contrast – in short, you are not bored...
Czech Musical at Last
-va- 1. December -1
…The force of the “Dreams” lies not only in the harmony of all components, but also in a characteristic Slavonic melodiousness. With a silent approval of William Shakespeare, the libretto was written by Stanislav Moša, director of the Brno Municipal Theatre who entrusted Zdeněk Merta to set the text to music. And it seems he did not do badly there. Merta’s melody and the way of processing a model, revealing the author’s relation to serious music, formed by the study of the Academy of Music Arts, and to popular music, work in the whole context as a pleasant and binding element...
