The Bartered Bride

Composer: SMETANA, Bedřich
  • Smetana composed his opera Prodaná nevěsta (The Bartered Bride, JB 1:100) from 1863 to 1866.
  • The Bartered Bride was Smetana’s second opera. After a rocky premiere (with low attendance, due to the imminent threat of the Seven Weeks’ War), the show was a great success, running for 100 performances between its premiere on May 30, 1866, and 1883. 
  • Part of the opera’s popularity was due to its character as a “folk” opera – audiences enjoyed its elements influenced by Bohemian folk music, including the use of a dance called skočná, or “flying polka.”1
  • Synopsis from The Metropolitan Opera 

Sources

  1. Marta Ottlová, Milan Pospíšil, John Tyrrell, and Kelly St Pierre, “Smetana, Bedřich,” Grove Music Online (September 28, 2018), accessed April 8, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-3000000151.

Cut IDs

48137 42713 48136 48136 22929