36) Concert in Prague's Spanish Synagogue

 CZECH COLLEGIUM consisting of members of the Czech Symphony Orchestra here conducted by Vladimir Bažant with soloist-soprano Michaela Šrümová.

It's a first for me to attend a classical concert in a synagogue. Routinely they are in churches but how often in synagogues?

The Spanish Synagogue proudly displays its Moorish influences.

 Nothing less than a standing ovation for Michaela Šrümová who sings with feeling and acts the roles subtly while fully conveying the characters' stories:

G. Verdi's Nabucco - Va pensiero

A.L.Webber's Evita - Don't cry for me Argentina

G.Gershwin's Summertime

Jewish traditional songs:

Hereby Shalom Alechem

As der rebbe Elimejlech

Lachlan Jerušalaim

Hava Nagila

Her versatility, tone and emotion are impressive and moving.

Watching and listening to her, I became welled up with emotion: awe at beautiful music, nostalgia for my cultured music-loving parents, deep pain over our holocaust history whose Czech story I became intimate with today. Tears rolled down my cheeks due to those three reflections.

Back in the street, a surprise to see the Hebrew letters on the clock face.

This is the façade and clock tower of the Jewish Town Hall. The hands of the town hall's Rococo clock turn backwards, as the Hebrew letters on its face are read from right to left. A gift from Mordechai Maisel in the 1570s, this attractive building was renovated in 1763-5 in a flowery Late Baroque style.*

(* from eyewitness travel Prague)