Obama to record greeting for Havel's concert on Iron Curtain fall

The concert, featuring Suzanne Vega, Joan Baez, Renee Fleming and Lou Reed, will be held in Prague on November 14, Havel's Office said.

Havel plans two events on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the communist regime in Central and Eastern Europe.

Apart from the concert, he will stage a series of debates with famous personalities, such as Czech-born former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright, British playwright of Czech origin Tom Stoppard, Polish anti-communist Adam Michnik and Irish musician and human right activist Bob Geldof, as well as political analysts.

The concert in the Prague Crossroad, former St Anne Church, in the Old Town will be broadcast live by the public Czech Television.

The artists, who will be accompanied by the Prague Chamber Philharmonic conducted by Jiri Belohlavek, are preparing special versions of their songs for this occasion.

Participants in the debates to take place on the Charles University premises will try to "reflect philosophical and geo-political aspects of the freedom issue in relation to revolution and its consequences," according to Havel's office.

Havel, 73, former dissident and playwright, occupied the post of Czechoslovak president after the collapse of the communist regime from December 1989 to 1992, and after Czechoslovakia's split in 1993 he became Czech president (in office 1993-2003).

Since he left the presidential post, Havel has primarily focused on human rights observance in the world. The International Committee for Democracy in Cuba was set up on his initiative in 2003.

Havel also returned to theatre with his new drama The Leaving that had a world premiere in Prague's Archa theatre on May 22, 2008.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz