Culture | Topic Archive

The 1999 movie Pelíšky (Cosy Dens) is a bittersweet drama set in the period leading up the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia August 1968. Chock-full of names like Václav Neckář, Blue Effect, Waldemar Matuška, The Matadors, Hana Hegerová and Petr Novák, its soundtrack is an excellent primer to the Czechoslovak music of that era and a brilliant compilation by any standards.

Aleš Rumpel is the head of the Mezipatra queer film festival, one of the leading events of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe. He has also been involved in numerous other cultural activities and currently works at the National Film Archive. Our tour of “Aleš’s Prague” begins on Národní třída, or National Street, an avenue that is home to institutions, such as Café Slavia and the National Theatre, as well as shops and restaurants of varying standards. So, what does Národní mean to Aleš Rumpel?

The 12th annual Prague Fringe Festival begins on Friday evening in the Czech capital. As always, the fest offers a wide range of theatre from all around the world. Prague-based playwright Stuart Mentha, following on the success of his debut, Déjà Vu, last year, is also back. Friday sees the premiere of his new play ‘False Friends’. He told us more about it at Czech Radio this week.

The City of Prague Gallery was given custodianship of the Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace in Prague’s Old Town a few years ago. The gallery is finally ready to open the building to the public, and possibly make it one of its main exhibition and educational sites. Radio Prague headed over to the palace to speak with the team that is working on its new appearance.

In this week's Sunday Music Show we feature works from Czech violin virtuoso Josef Špaček's debut.

It’s no secret that American writer Robert Fulghum loves the Czech Republic and that his books, published by Argo, have proven immensely popular here. He has been back at least ten times over the years to promote his work, from his famous All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten to his latest, Memories of One Adventure.

Organized by the International Dvorak Society, the American Spring music festival (April 8th to July 4th) annually brings internationally renowned soloists and music ensembles to a broad audience in the Czech Republic, with concerts and master classes taking place in dozens of towns and villages around the country. Among this year’s performers is pianist Diana Fanning from Middlebury College, Vermont whose recent piano recital featured music by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček. When she visited Radio Prague’s studio shortly after the recital we talked

The 68th annual Prague Spring International Music Festival began on Sunday with Bedřich Smetana’s Má Vlast (My Country) at Prague’s Municipal House and is continuing with high-profile events until the beginning of June. This week alone visitors will be able to attend the finale of the Prague Spring International Music Competition, The Giacomo Variations featuring American actor John Malkovich and a performance by Czech violin virtuoso Josef Špaček to name only a few of the many events.

This week we are profiling the band Ahmed má hlad (Ahmed is hungry) a band that revives and draws on Balkan and East European folk music, while giving these traditional gems a modern slant.

The Czech Republic and Hungary are countries of similar size with plenty of history in common, whether we look back to the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the common experience of invasion in more recent decades: in 1956 for Hungary and 1968 for Czechoslovakia. And you don’t have to look far to find parallels in the literature of the two countries. In Czech Books, David Vaughan looks at some of these Czech-Hungarian literary links from the point of view of a Czech who is steeped in contemporary Hungarian writing.