Havel stages concert to mark 1989 events | Prague Monitor »
Posted By gamahuche 5 days, 7 hours ago in NewsSongs by American singer Suzanne Vega opened a concert staged by former president Vaclav Havel to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution on Saturday evening.
The audience also listened to the recorded greetings of U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Dalai Lama and former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev.
U.S. President Barack Obama congratulated the Czech Republic and Slovakia on the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in his video-greeting for the concert. He said the Velvet Revolution keeps inspiring people all over the world who are striving for freedom.
Moreover, Mick Jagger from Rolling Stones sent greetings to Havel, along with Bono Vox from the Irish band U2.
After Vega, U.S. song-writers and singers Joan Baez and Lou Reed, who supported Havel in the past, performed at the concert.
Baez sang John Lennon's Imagine and the spirituals Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and We Shall Overcome. In the last song some guests to the event, including Czech-born former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright and Prague Archbishop Miloslav Vlk, joined her.
The event, broadcast live by the public Czech Television, culminated with the performance of famous U.S. soprano Renee Fleming singing arias from Czech operas. She was accompanied by the Prague Chamber Philharmonic conducted by Jiri Belohlavek.
A unique bonus was a duet by Fleming and Reed, singing his song Perfect Day.
All singers then jointly sang the spiritual Freedom which Havel dedicated to the citizens of the countries that still lack freedom and live under the suppression of state power, such as North Korea, Burma, Tibet, Belarus, Iran, Darfur, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Venezuela and others.
The atmosphere of 1989 was evoked by the screening of historical documents, candles and a special lighting.
.On Saturday, Havel also staged a series of debates with famous personalities, such as Albright, British playwright of Czech origin Tom Stoppard, British political analyst Timothy Garton Ash, Michnik and Glucksmann as well as Czech philosopher Jan Sokol, Senate deputy chairman Petr Pithart and journalist Jan Urban.
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gamahuche
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gamahuche5 days, 7 hours ago
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Tomorrow will be the big day, with a re-enactment of a march which was THE historical turning point.
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This was Vaclav Havel's party and it was great that so many of his important friends showed up or at least sent messages.
He will remain an historical icon long after his grey namesake Vaclav Klaus is long forgotten.
I hope that opiczka2 will post something about tomorrow's events; she was here at the time. I didn't get back till almost 3 year's later - and that was still a marvellous time.. -
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djn3nunez35 days, 5 hours ago
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How can it be? No mention of Zappa?
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The connection may not seem immediately obvious, but Frank Zappa's popularity in Prague is closely connected to the dark days of the dissident era, when his music and that of the Velvet Underground were blacklisted by the censors. For example, Frank Zappa's second album, Absolutely Free was smuggled into Czechoslovakia within a year of its 1967 release, and critics claim that the music influenced the famous Czech underground rock band, The Plastic People of the Universe. Zappa's tunes thus came to represent freedom and independent thought to dissidents in Czechoslovakia. Reports have it that when young kids in communist Czechoslovakia played heavy rock music, the police would tell them to "turn off that Frank Zappa music."
Frank Zappa with Vaclav Havel Then, in January 1990, Vaclav Havel appointed Frank Zappa as "Special Ambassador to the West on Trade, Culture and Tourism," much to the disgruntlement of U.S. Secretary of State, James Baker, who is famous for declaring: "You can do business with the United States or you can do business with Frank Zappa." Still, Vaclav Havel's friendship with Frank Zappa grew, and Zappa shared his ideas about increasing tourism to Czechoslovakia, and explained the concept of credit cards which were then an unknown quantity in this part of the world. It was Frank Zappa's brief interlude in the world of international trade and diplomatic relations—and the vantage-point was Prague.
Vaclav Havel still counts himself amongst Zappa's big fans, and says that "Frank Zappa was one of the gods of the Czech underground." There he'll surely stay in the memories of his Czech friends.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/79169-
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gamahuche4 days, 16 hours ago
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Oh yes, you're absolutely right!
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But then VH was quite promiscuous in his love of Western musicians - mainly of the RnR genre.
Lou Reed and Mick Jagger were - and remain - other favourites.
Havel once did a public theatrical event with Lou Reed - a kind of forum - and all these guys were regular visitors at the Castle.
There's no particular recorded evidence of a few j's passing from hand-to-hand but a general assumption that that was indeed the case..
No big deal in the Czech lands anyway, on any level..
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