Concerts in Prague: false notes, great business

To get to Prague's historic Charles Bridge, tourists have to slalom through hawkers handing out leaflets offering private musical concerts whose primary goal is often more business than culture.

"The Best of Mozart", "The Best of Czech Music", "The Most Beautiful Arias in the World" read offers that many tourists find hard to resist but local music lovers carefully avoid because of high prices and poor quality.

"We try to warn our clients to avoid falling in this trap, but many go for it all the same," said a Czech specialist in cultural tourism.

These concerts are "not really flattering for Czech tourism" and competition has become "rough" with the drop in visitor numbers caused by the economic crisis, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.

The private concerts started to develop after the fall of communism and flourished throughout the past decade.

Alexandre, a young Swiss tourist, expected to hear the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra play Antonin Dvorak in the picturesque Dvorak Hall in Prague's Rudolfinum concert centre.

He bought a ticket from a vendor outside the building, only to find himself listening to "The Best of Czech Music" played by a quartet in a much smaller and less fancy adjacent hall.

"Executed, that's the word -- they have killed Mozart," said Veronique, a French woman in her fifties.

She had just seen a private performance at the magnificent Estates Theatre in which, as the leaflet says, "Mozart directed the very first performance of his Don Giovanni in 1787."

Veronique paid 700 korunas (26.7 euros, 37.4 dollars) for an hour of the "best opera tunes" by Mozart, performed by three musicians, a baritone and a soprano.

Had she known better, she could have seen "Don Giovanni" or "The Marriage of Figaro" for half the price with a fully-fledged orchestra, singers, stage set and choir, offered at the official counter of the hallowed National Theatre.

The street vendors are a trap for tourists, mindful of Prague's rich heritage as one of the music centres of eastern Europe.

Czechs themselves avoid these overpriced concerts and rely on traditional -- and paradoxically cheaper -- venues, which they were taken to as children during mandatory school concerts and history classes.

Veronique may draw little consolation from the fact that the musicians she heard play at the "Mozartissimo" concert, organised by a private agency, BM Art, were probably "real" professionals.

"Our budget is too tight to pay proper wages to our musicians who therefore have to earn extra money at commercial concerts," National Theatre director Ondrej Cerny told AFP.

The average monthly wage in the National Theatre orchestra amounts to some 22,000 korunas (840 euros, 1,175 dollars), which is close to the average Czech salary.

Singers earn about 1,000 euros a month, which is far less than the wages paid to singers in Germany or Austria.

The National Theatre, as the umbrella company, rents out the Estates Theatre to patch holes in its budget. So the "Mozartissimo" concert in turn gets listed in the National Theatre's official programme.

"It's true that this might be confusing," said Cerny, who insisted that "the concerts boast proper quality."

The BM Art agency does not limit itself to the Estates Theatre. It offers to organise, upon request, events in various historic buildings in Prague with "musical performances of any kind", including a transvestite show.

Agencies offering private programmes are fighting over the fabulous Baroque churches in Prague's stunning centre, an ideal venue for concerts.

Psalterium, an organisation offering liturgical music in St. Nicholas Church in the Old Town Square, says "it does its best to offer the best quality music to the broad public."

But it will not say how much it pays the street hawkers -- often illegal Ukrainians, or the musicians -- who are often paid in cash, or how much the organisers make.

"This is a business secret," said Psalterium, which organises about 200 concerts per year.

In Catholic churches, the episcopal regulations require programmes to have a spiritual focus. Financial details are set down in a contract, and some of the profits must go back into the church for maintenance.

But Ales Pistora, a spokesman for the Prague archbishop's office, conceded that the quality of the "concerts for tourists is in general rather mediocre, probably because the agencies are seeking above all profits."

He said, however, he was speaking "as a Prague citizen".

The musicians themselves have dubbed the concerts "KMC" for "Kdo ma cas" -- or "whoever has the time to come" -- since the orchestras are often put together at the last minute, though the posters are printed well in advance.

The musicians are also saddled with the unflattering nickname of "seasoners" -- for playing Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" most of the time.

"Everybody ends up playing at one time or another, but nobody would boast such experience," said Ondrej, a young orchestra conductor.

"I quit as soon as I could," he added.