A little night music

Last night we went to the 5-star-rated Mozart dinner--three courses interspersed with Mozart arias, duets, and short instrumental pieces (divertimentos and, of course, "A Little Night Music") in a lavishly restored underground ballroom whose parquet floors, made of nine kinds of wood, give slightly under your feet to pamper dancers there.

Before the soup course we heard the famous seduction scene from Don Giovanni and, later, pieces from Barber of Seville and The Magic Flute. The singers, from Prague opera houses, and the string quintet have to do this three times a week, so we could forgive them a few missteps and sniggering among themselves. Overall, the performance was beautiful to watch and hear, especially if you love Mozart, which Prague has ever since the composer's first visit there.

But the menu, inspired by traditional 18th-century recipes, was not itself too inspired. One can apparently eat better from a local supermarket deli (see photos) than Praguers could in the 1700s. Tasteless pea soup with mint, tough beef cheeks with mash swimming in gravy, and a dry piece of strudel. What was all the TripAdvisor fuss over the strudel about, we wondered.

Beef cheeks with mash, swimming in gravy. Everywhere else in Prague salts its food almost to excess. Here, where it was needed, no salt could be found.

Luscious lunch bought at Kaufland supermarket: multigrain bread with corn kernels, fresh tomatoes, tete de moine Swiss cheese, ham, and roast chicken

Still, it was a lovely evening with good company at our eight-person table--three charming ladies from Atlanta; Shane, a staunch solo travel girl from Sydney who hadn't slept in nearly two days and can be excused falling asleep during an especially moving duet; and a grim mother-daughter pair from Siberia, who eventually cracked a smile when the baritone offered a rose to various audience members.