Bedřich Smetana's National-Historical Operas as Media for the Expression of Political Attitudes

Petra Babić

Musicologica Olomucensia X:X | DOI: 10.5507/mo.2026.001  

The article explores how Bedřich Smetana’s national-historical operas functioned as media for transmitting of political messages in 19th-century Bohemia. The study examines The Brandenburgers in Bohemia and Libuše and aims to demonstrate how Smetana and his librettists intentionally embedded political discourse that drew on national history, myth, and current events. In The Brandenburgers in Bohemia, historical trauma associated with the ­13th-century Brandenburg occupation provided a framework to address themes of oppression, national unity, and resistance, which in turn resonated with ­19th-century experiences of national...

Smetana's reception in France between 1850 and 1939

Matthieu Cailliez

Musicologica Olomucensia X:X | DOI: 10.5507/mo.2026.002  

Documented, among other sources, by the French music press and French music dictionaries, the slow and belated reception of Smetana’s operas in France is out of step with his reception in the rest of Europe. Sixty-two years after its premiere, The Bartered Bride was the only opera by the composer and the only Czech opera performed in France before the Second World War, the Paris premiere of La Fiancée vendue taking place in 1928 at the Opéra-Comique. Three of Smetana’s other operas were performed in France more than a century after their premiere. As a result, only four of Smetana’s eight operas and a single Dvořák’s...

Nevesta do koča aj do voza. Interpretačná tradícia Predanej nevesty na slovenských operných scénach

A Timeless Bride. The Performance Tradition of The Bartered Bride on Slovak Opera Stages

Michaela Mojžišová

Musicologica Olomucensia X:X | DOI: 10.5507/mo.2026.003  

Since the birth of the Slovak professional theatre, dating from the establishment of the Slovak National Theatre (1920), Smetana’s The Bartered Bride has been statistically the most performed opera title in Slovakia. It was not absent from any of the historical periods or political systems of the turbulent 20th century; it was not lost from the programme even after the break-up of the Czechoslovak Republic and the establishment of the Slovak State in 1939 (later the Slovak Republic), and it retained its position as a repertoire staple even after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia and the establishment of the independent Slovak Republic...