Baltimore Opera Company

Study Guide

The Bartered Bride
Prodaná Nevesta

Opera In Prague

Bedřich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride is a fine example of the rich artistic tradition of Czech opera. This work, now a classic in the international repertory, demonstrates how native composers molded a foreign genre and literally made it “sing” their country’s songs.

Opera was brought to Bohemia and Moravia in the eighteenth century by the conquering Habsburg whose Holy Roman Empire of German States virtually dominated Europe. As witnessed by the wealth of operatic activity in the Habsburg capital, Vienna, these rulers and their Electors were dedicated to the musical stage. The earliest works presented in Czech territories, however, were imports from the French, Italian, and German traditions they supported. Hence, audiences heard performances in foreign languages. In Prague, traveling Italian companies had particular success; in fact, the Bondini company was responsible for commissioning Mozart to write Don Giovanni. It did not disturb audiences that their musical fare was not in Czech for the official language of the empire was German. Ironically, when some composers attempted to write operas in their native tongue, they were unsuccessful because, as German speakers, they were unfamiliar with the rhythmic flow of the Czech language, and if musical stresses do not match linguistics ones, the results are generally disastrous. Those who did use Czech often restricted it to popular Singspiel works—operas with spoken dialogue interspersed with musical numbers. Otherwise, Czech was used sparingly within German works to allude to the rustic lifestyle outside of urban centers.

By the turn of the nineteenth century, artists in many lands were feeling the stirrings of nationalism, the driving credo that would inspire a flurry of revolutions by mid-century. In Bohemia, playwrights were turning to Czech, and their interest in turn inspired librettists to employ it for operatic texts. Even though works from the standard European repertory still dominated the stage, performances in Czech were introduced to audiences who, also inspired by nationalistic fervor, responded favorably. At first, many of these works were merely translations of popular foreign operas, but here again, since the original music was tailored to another language, the translated texts often were awkward fits. More and more, composers and librettists turned to writing original works. Such were the compositions encouraged by Smetana when he directed the operatic stage of Prague’s Provisional Theatre from 1866 to 1874.

In addition to using their native language, composers created nationalistic works by including musical allusions to well-known folk tunes or employing regional dance rhythms. For their part, librettists based their plots on stories and characters drawn from local history or popular folk tales. Such works had a special effect on audiences, appealing at a most intimate level to those who associated with such elements while excluding those who had suppressed their culture a century before.

After Smetana’s death in 1884, opera moved to a new home: the National Theatre in Prague. It was there that younger composers began to introduce works that demonstrated the influence of Wagnerian dramatic theory. Although still in the Czech tradition, such “progressive” works actually mirrored the artistic activity throughout Europe. Despite its significant nationalism, Czech opera quickly moved into the mainstream of contemporary musical thought and development. Today, cities such as Prague, Brno, and Olomouc remain important centers in the history of opera, and classics such as The Bartered Bride illustrate how an “imposed” art form was adopted and molded into a true statement of national culture and heritage.

Denise Gallo

1One well-known example of a Singspiel is Mozart’s Die Zauberflőte (The Magic Flute).

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