Iluminace 2019, 31(3):61-87 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1634

The Music History of Laterna Magika

Jan Černíček

Univerzita Karlova

In Laterna magika's sixty-year-old history, a long list of well-known composers collaborated on its performances representing a broad spectrum of approaches both in terms genre and style. Given its relation and connection to some older types of theatre stage forms containing music, the creative work for this institution could be generally categorised as theatre music, however, its constitutive usage of film projection and related synchronization of music with film picture, fixed to a film copy, also connects it with film art. The resulting multi-media stage figure is (viewed from the perspective of music) mostly derived from the traditional forms such as ballet, opera, revue, musical comedy or scenic oratorio. In many cases, a strong inspiration by instruments of film music expression can be followed.
The beginnings of the artistic approach of Laterna magika's founders, Alfréd Radok and Josef Svoboda, could be found in their work at the 5th May Theatre (Divadlo 5. května), where they coworked with the conductor and composer Václav Kašlík. While early performances of Laterna magika in the fifties and sixties were based on the concepts of revue shows, from the seventies on, one can observe the shift towards dramatically integrated forms. These efforts culminated in the second half of the 1980s when noticeable inspirations by non-artificial music are observed in the musical approach. At the same time, a dramaturgical approach oriented towards increasing dance expression was asserted, brought even to the form of visually attractive ballet performances, which have prevailed from 1989 to the present day.
From the 1970s, in relation to establishing cooperation with the sound master Ivo Špalj, one can also observe a considerable development of work with the sound component, strengthened with the introduction of innovative sound technologies.
Among the specifics of the music work at Laterna magika, apart from the ones mentioned above, we can also include the exclusive use of reproduced sound, absence of a permanent musical ensemble, numerous uses of classical music (initially not intended for theatre purposes) or balancing the boundary between the worlds of artificial and popular music.

Keywords: Laterna magika, multi-media art, theatre music, film music, ballet

Published: September 1, 2019  Show citation