Bedřich Smetana Suggest updates
Born Litomyšl, 2 March 1824.
Died Prague, 12 May 1884.
Czech (Bohemian) composer.
Smetana is rightly regarded as the father of Czech opera, composing operas in that language in preference to German, his own native tongue. In Britain, The Bartered Bride has always been popular, and the extremely serious Dalibor and frothy Two Widows have also been done by Scottish Opera. It would be nice to hear one of his late pieces occasionally - and what a pity it is that he only composed fragments of a planned opera Viola, based on Twelfth Night.
Operas performed in Scotland are shown in bold:-
01 The Brandenburgers in Bohemia - Braniboři v Čechách (1863; prod Prague 1866) (Sabina)
02 The Bartered Bride - Prodaná nevĕsta (Prague 1866) (Sabina)
03 Dalibor (Prague 1868) (Wenzig, tran Špindler)
04 Libuše (1872; prod Prague 1882) (Wenzig, tran Špindler)
05 The Two Widows - Dvĕ vdovy (Prague 1874, rev 1878) (Züngel)
06 The Kiss - Hubička (Prague 1876) (Krásnohorská)
07 The Secret - Tajemství (Prague 1878) (Krásnohorská)
08 The Devil's Wall - Čertova stĕna (Prague 1882) (Krásnohorská)
