Smetana and the librettist Karel Sabina masterfully mocked all those who expected the "national opera" to be an idyllic picture of the Czech countryside, with its inhabitants being virtuous and ...

The Czechiest features of The Bartered Bride – cornerstone of Czech opera and the first to go international after premiering in 1866 – are in the music rather than the story or setting. No accident: ...

So do we exchange jolly peasants for glowering apparatchiks? Hardly – this is as entertaining a version of Smetana’s opera as you could wish, but the celebration of Czech nationalism has extra edge ...

The School of Music's Lyric Opera Theatre is putting on a production of Bedřich Smetana’s "The Bartered Bride" on Sept. 27, 28, 30 and on Oct. 1. Dale Dreyfoos, professor of opera and music theater ...