Wed, 13. 12. 2023, 17.00 hrs
THE INCREDIBLY SAD PRINCESS
Venue: Zlín Congress Centre | Organizer: Filharmonie Bohuslava Martinů, o.p.s. |
BERENIKA KOHOUTOVÁ and JAN CINA vocals
KRYŠTOF MAREK conductor
BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
The Incredibly Sad Princess - a tale with live music accompaniment
“We’ll go through the basics of the lesson, and that is A: we must understand the point of the joke, and thus B: realise what there is to laugh at. So we’ll begin at the beginning: Ha ha, he he, hee hee.”
Once again this season the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic presents a large-format screening of a classic Czech tale. This time it’s about the arranged marriage between the offspring of Kings Jindřich and Dobromysl, which the princess tries to boycott by pretending to be grief-stricken, while the prince, who is famously “half a head shorter” than her, spends time behind bars as a scruffy ne’er-do-well. In a nutshell, it’s the story of two scheming advisers, a royal executioner and the chief jester Kokoška with unforgettable lines and natural humour replete with double entendre and metaphor.
The Incredibly Sad Princess was directed by Bořivoj Zeman with screenplay by František Vlček and music by Jan Hammer jr., only in his early 20s at the time, with top-class acting and singing by Helena Vondráčková and Václav Neckář. It’s almost unbelievable that this gem of a motion picture with its brilliant songs and tunes such as Miluju a maluju, Kujme pikle, Já už to vím, Znám jednu starou zahradu and Slza z tváře padá was made as long as 55 years ago.
Joining the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic tonight for our unforgettable fairy-tale evening are two leading actors with the DVA Studio in Prague - Berenika Kohoutová and Jan Cina.
The performance is a collaborative venture with the SOUNDTRACK international film music and multimedia festival in Poděbrady, where it originated.