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 Vienna State Opera will present Bedřich Smetana’s beloved comic opera Die verkaufte Braut (The Bartered Bride) on March 31, 2026, as part of its spring repertory season.
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 ...