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From anthem to anthem.

It's 1996. It was the end of June, and I was sitting on a plane with opera singer Dagmar Pecková and her then manager Jana. We were flying together to the 1996 European Championship football final between the Czech Republic and Germany. This was preceded by a phone call in which I answered in the affirmative to the question whether it would be appropriate for a popular opera diva to sing the Czech anthem before a football match where some sixty to seventy thousand spectators were expected to attend. The experience and effect exceeded expectations and to this day we all recall the electrifying atmosphere that reigned in the stadium when the monumentally arching "Where is my home" was sung á capella. We may have lost the final in the setup, but I believe that among other things, the live singing of the Czech national anthem propelled the Czech footballers forward to their best performance at that time.

Duben 2018. I am standing in a crowd of about 20,000 people in Wenceslas Square. I learn from the moderator of the "Million Moments for Democracy" event that the Czech national anthem performed by Dagmar Pecková will be played at the end of the meeting of those who would like to prevent the bending of democratic and constitutional principles in our country. I await with anxious curiosity the first notes and the feelings it evokes in me. Not only Škroup's and Tyl's song itself, but especially the singer's impassioned and at the same time dramatic rendition of the piece by the mezzo-soprano works again. Many people join in, and the resulting chorus inspires the belief that everything will turn out for the best, and that we have the strength to discern what we can still tolerate, and what we really must no longer allow.

Just the difference in the number of participants makes me a little uneasy. I like football quite a bit, but I consider policing democracy more important.

 

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