• PŘERHOF, Heřmann: actor / actress / theatre performer

This was the first of five musical and humorous soirées arranged by the Prague actor and impresario Heřman Přerhof during the 1861 Lenten season.

The brief Národní listy 1/3/1861 review noted that the attendance of this second beseda arranged by Přerhof ‘was even more magnificent than the first. The room was full and most numbers of the programme were received with universal approbation.’

Přerhof first arranged a series of five weekly ‘humorous’ entertainments, including music, in February and March 1861. According to contemporary periodical reports these productions initially proved to be popular social occasions, with programmes comprising spoken declamations (Přerhof himself was an actor), and often quite substantial items of music. Their success probably encouraged the impresario to arrange a further series of entertainments in June 1861 and November 1861. However, these later productions increasingly concentrated upon light music and dance works, perhaps in an effort to court popularity with the public. Unfortunately, rather than gaining in popularity, entertainments in later years seem to have been less well attended. Přerhof arranged no productions during 1862, a series of only four programmes in March-April 1863, and three programmes in June-July 1864. However, a brief Národní listy 24/3/1861 review of the fifth in a series of these entertainments remarked upon their tendency to attract large audiences.