Semafor
Semafor is a traditional Czech cabaret in Prague . Inspired by the Osvobozené divadlo (The Liberated Theater) of the interwar period, it was founded on October 30, 1959 by a group around the songwriters and actors Jiří Suchý and Jiří Šlitr . The theater that still exists today celebrated its greatest success and popularity in the 1960s. The term "theater of small forms" was also applied to other theaters in the 1960s, such as Divadlo Na zábradlí , which belonged to the avant-garde of Czechoslovak culture of the time.
history
The cabaret stages played a decisive role in the development of modern theater as well as pop music in Czechoslovakia, for example the Reduta program wine bar on Prague's national road , not far from Wenceslas Square , which developed into a jazz club and theater. Here, in the late 1950s, some friends met who began to sing Western pop and rock music with their own lyrics, including Jiří Suchý and Jiří Šlitr . Her own productions followed, and in 1958 her song Blues pro tebe (Blues for you) celebrated great success. The success had two components: the rock-like music as well as humorous texts, not geared towards the usual cheering of the party, partly interspersed with reading of the poems by Christian Morgenstern . That was new at the time and was in stark contrast to the songs otherwise broadcast on the radio. In 1958 Jiří Suchý founded the small stage Na zábradlí with Ivan Vyskočil , their piece Kdyby tisíc Klarinetů (When a Thousand Clarinets) was the first performance. In 1959 Suchý went into business for himself and founded the Semafor theater.
The name of the Semafor theater, founded in 1959, is an apronym for SEdm MAlých FORem (German: "seven small forms") in the sense of "seven small genres", which should represent the spectrum of the theater's artistic activity: film, poetry, jazz, puppet theater , Dance, visual arts, and musical comedy, occasionally performing other similar genres such as pantomime, cabaret, etc.
After a few moves, Semafor played from 1968 in the center of Prague in the "Passage Alfa" directly on Wenceslas Square. After 1993, when the Passage house was returned to the original owners, there were again several moves, and since October 1, 2005, the theater has been located in the Dejvice district, in a building built in 1929 as a residential building with a concert hall and reconstructed in 2005 .
The original artistic tandem Jiří Suchý and Jiří Šlitr was supplemented from 1967 by two new theater members Jiří Grossmann and Miloslav Šimek . After Šlitr's death in 1969, Suchý entered into a new creative relationship with Ferdinand Havlík , with Jitka Molavcová becoming Suchý's new partner after 1970. After Grossmann's death in 1971, the duo Miloslav Šimek and Luděk Sobota emerged , later Miloslav Šimek and Jiří Krampol . From 1974 a new group was added, led by Josef Dvořák . In 1990 there were disagreements between those involved and, as a result, a separation: both the Šimek and Dvořák groups became independent, so that since then the Semafor stage has been artistically owned by the duo Jiří Suchý and Jitka Molavcová.
Performances, music
The driving force in the best years of the theater was the duo Suchý and Šlitr. Suchý, who already founded the Divadlo Na zábradlí theater , wrote the lyrics, Šlitr, with his experiences from several jazz clubs in Prague, the music - which was performed by Ferdinand Havlík's orchestra , who has worked on the stage for many years; he is one of the co-founders of the stage. The first performance was the play Člověk z půdy (Man from the Attic) on October 30, 1959. In addition to the guest actors Miroslav Horníček , Miloš Kopecký and František Filipovský , the singers Waldemar Matuška , Karel Štědrý and Pavlína Filipovská appeared, all of whom later performed Have become stars. After this success, there was a song-based performance of Zuzana je sama doma (Zuzana is at home alone) in 1960, later reissued several times and, also in 1960, Taková ztráta krve (Such a Blood Loss ) - a piece that was made as a result of an objection from the censors content had to be slightly revised. With these pieces the basis for the stage's later fame was laid.
The performances were often divided into stage pieces made up of text and sketches or musical-like song performances, such as Ondráš podotýká (Ondráš notes) from 1963, a performance with both Czech and foreign rock music. This distinction between the genres is imprecise, especially for the time Suchý and Šlitr worked together. The stage plays, all of which were characterized by an intellectual sense of humor, also contained countless songs that became big hits in Czechoslovakia. All in all, Semafor offered entertainment that was not intended to educate, as was intended by cultural policy at the time, but rather to entertain. Some of the songs that were presented in the Semafor have become hits in a very short time and have had a major impact on the music scene. The singers on stage were Karel Gott, Eva Pilarová, Waldemar Matuška, Hana Hegerová, the rock band Olympic , Miki Volek , Hana Hegerová, Eva Pilarová, Karel Gott, Waldemar Matuška and many others, who a short time later became the best-known artists in the Czech Republic Pop and rock music belonged.
Artist
Former artists who performed on the Semafor stage included:
From the repertoire
A total of around 150 productions premiered between 1959 and 1999, not counting numerous pieces by Grossmann and Šimek as well as by Dvořák and his team. The most successful performance ever was the piece Kytice (bouquet of flowers) from 1972 with almost 600 repetitions; the piece is based on the balade collection of the same name by Karel Jaromír Erben from 1853, but was heavily edited and influenced by Suchý.
Film and television productions
During the existence of the theater, several dozen films, television plays and other short productions as well as recordings of the performances were made - Miloš Forman directed a few films . A selection:
- Člověk z půdy (1962)
- Bylo nás deset (1963)
- Bankruptcy (1964)
- Recital 64 (1964)
- Kdyby tisíc Klarinetů (1965)
- Dobře placená procházka (1966)
- Zločin v šantánu (1968)
- Nevěsta (1970)
- Jonáš a Melicharová (1986)
- Jonáš II. Aneb jak je důležité míti Melicharovou (1989)
Discography
In addition to several recordings of the pieces played on stage, around 275 songs were created in the 1960s alone, which were later published in a CD collection. A few hundred were added after the 1960s.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Semafor , keyword from the online encyclopedia CoJeCo , online at: cojeco.cz / ...
- ↑ Vladimír Just: Nebyl jen Semafor a Zábradlí aneb Malá divadla jako hnutí. online at: amaterskedivadlo.cz / ...
- ↑ a b c d e Semafor . History section (with numerous other subsections), online at: semafor.cz / ... ( memento from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), as well as Semafor . History section 1959–1969, online at: semafor.wdr.cz / ... , two partially overlapping texts from the area of the theater; both in Czech, accessed May 28, 2015.
- ↑ Semafor , Database for Theater, online at: theatre-architecture.eu/cs / ... , accessed on May 28, 2015 (Czech)
- ↑ Semafor , section Herci , online at: semafor.cz/herci / ... , as well as Semafor , section Osobnosti , online at: semafor.wdr.cz / ... , two very similar but not completely identical texts from the area of Theaters, both in Czech, accessed May 28, 2015
- ↑ history. Hry , online at: www.semafor.cz/
- ↑ German: The bouquet. Illustrated by Rut Kohn, with an afterword by Pavel Kohn, translated by Eduard Albert and Marie Kwaysser, Stutz, Passau 2011, ISBN 978-3-88849-152-8 .
- ↑ Kytice 1972 , online at: www.semafor.cz / ...
- ↑ Filmy , complete overview on: www.semafor.wdr.cz / ... ; Film a TV , an annotated short overview, online at: www.semafor.cz / ...
- ↑ history. LP, CD, DVD , online at semafor.cz / ...
- ↑ Zlatá éra české pop music , online at: musicserver.cz / ...
- ^ Divadlo Semafor. Orchestr Ferdinanda Havlíka, Jiří Suchý / Jiří Šlitr , online at: zateckecountry.cz / ...