PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ottlová, Marta
TI  - On the Conception of Smetana's Dalibor
DP  - 2018 Jun 11
TA  - Musicologica Olomucensia
PG  - 131--147
VI  - 27
IP  - 1
AID - 10.5507/mo.2018.011
IS  - 27879186
AB  - The first critiques of the performance of the opera Dalibor already pointed out its long-term poor acceptance and major problems with dramaturgy. Although Smetana continued to emphasize the quality of his third opera, he did not succeed in promoting it, and this lack of understanding became the author's life disappointment. Dalibor was considered a Wagnerian work that did not correspond to any type of Czech national opera (one of the reproached aspects was the lack of choir and dance acts which were typical for local culture). The study reveals the intentions of the librettist Adolf Wenzig, who focused on a story of tragic love burdened by history and causing deadly vengeance. Smetana's interpretation of the libretto was different, emphasizing the motif of friendship and love. The tension between reality and the visions of the main characters in Dalibor is fully manifested at the end of the third act, which was reworked several times. In spite of the problematic solution, Dalibor remains a work of exceptional quality reacting in a distinct way to the contemporary situation in tragic opera of the second half of the nineteenth century.