Zvuky Prahy / Sounds of Prague

The Musical Theater in the basement of the ČTK building in the passage from Opletalova Street to Václavské nýměstí played an important role in the cultural map of Prague between 50. and end of 80th of 20 century. The hall had about 130 seats, and the dramaturgy, similar to Laterna Magika, combined reproduced and live music, spoken word, dance, slide projection, and film. The theater was opened in October 1949 under the name Gramothon, or Gramoton by the general director of the Gramophone Works (later merged with the State Enterprise Supraphon) Josef Hasa. The combination of the Musical Theater operated by Gramophone Works meant the building of an extensive collection of 33,000 gramophone records in 1958 - and an unique music archive. Students used to come there to listen to contemporary music, as Jan Klusak recalls, because new music was on index in the 1950s at HAMU or Radio. Part of The Prague Theater of Music was the exhibition hall and the Cultural Service. Gramophone company had set up their brand store near and Music Theater programs was possible to be seen and heard throughout the Czechoslovakia. The Music Theater was established in Bratislava, Ostrava (Aero, 1951), Liberec (1956), Pardubice, Plzeň, Olomouc or Kroměříž. In the early 1950s, people such as MIrko Očadlík or Pavel Eisner (1889-1958) poet, writer and bilingual translator.The record taken from Supraphon vinyl is a proof that he was also interested in music. February 4, 1977, songwriters, musicians and singers of popular music came here to support the Proclamation of the Committee of Association of Artist, signed on 28 January 1977 at the National Theater. In the hall gathered the crem dela creme of the Czechoslovakian pop music. Karel Gott had an introductory speech, Eva Pilarová the main speech. The Music Theater closed its activity in the early 1990s, possibly paralelly with the privatization of Supraphon, Since 2003 there is the Theater of Radek Brzobohatý. the function of the Divadlo hudby partly took over the club Unijjazz based in Vodičkova Street nearby.