EThere is an enormous breadth of memories and feelings that Bedřich Smetana calls up in his compositions, and nowhere is it clearer than in the two works that have made him a world composer far beyond his Czech homeland: “Má vlast “, the six-part orchestral cycle of patriotic evocations of the past, which, at the moment of sound, become a pulsating, heart-opening present; and his “Bartered Bride,” one of the few cheerful operas of the 19th century that is almost on a par with Mozart’s da Ponte settings.
Here the wings of the soul are so spread out that, if it weren't Smetana, you would hardly be able to see a connection from one pole to the other. But that's exactly what makes it special: as in the whispering appeal of bygone, often painful times – in addition to the “Fatherland” cycle, especially in the monumental national operas “Dalibor” and “Libussa” – always hearty and inexhaustible, drawn from the native landscape and the sounds of inexhaustible vitality play along with their customs; while in the superficially almost naive picture arches of wealthy church villages and small rural aristocratic houses that unfold in his cheerful operas, a certainty of tradition that has grown over centuries always forms the unshakable basis. If it becomes a dogma, it may even be illuminated in a cartoonish way – it still forms a general denominator into which all distortions and conflicts can ultimately be incorporated and resolved.
If you want to experience this directly over more than twenty hours, you can make your way to Ostrava. The Moravian-Silesian National Theater there has been rehearsing all eight of Smetana's operas since 2014 and is now performing them in two compact complete series. The first began on March 2nd on the 200th anniversary of his birthday; the second will end on May 12, the date of the 140th anniversary of his death. The fact that the speakers here are almost exclusively Czech native speakers guarantees more than just idiomatic authenticity; It also creates that basic atmosphere of warm-hearted understanding, which is able to include strange and bizarre peripheral characters such as the constantly arguing, order-obsessed gamekeeper Mumlal in “Two Widows” (František Zahradníček) and sometimes even minor characters shine miraculously, such as in the delightful, dewy lark song of a young maid (Marta Chila Reichelová) in “The Kiss”.
A colleague as quality-conscious as Gustav Mahler loved this intimate chamber piece and had the material for it – as well as that for the “Secret” – delivered to Vienna. In the end, neither of them made it to the court opera, but instead (in addition to the “Bartered Bride,” which had already been established in the repertoire before Mahler), “Dalibor,” which he scheduled as the second premiere after taking office and which, at the end of his era, had conducted more often than, for example, “ Fidelio” and all Wagner operas except “Tristan”. Richard Strauss, on the other hand, appreciated the “Two Widows”, in which Smetana transposes a conversation piece into a quieter and more sensitive world of mind and sound without losing the humorous punchlines.
This metamorphosis is carried primarily by the two female title characters, embodied in Ostrava by the youthfully agile Soňa Godarská and the more dramatic and tensely forced, but also warm-voiced Veronika Rovná – both of whom are also intensively involved in other performances, the latter particularly haunting in the female lead in the “Kiss” opera.
Marek Šedivý conducts tightly and spiritedly
The tenor counterpart was often provided by Martin Šrejma, in “Widows” who parleyed with as much precision as he did lyrically; the noble, robust baritone Svatopluk Sem (in “Kiss”) or the excitingly urgent mezzo-soprano Anna Nitrovás (especially as Róza in “Secret”) provide further examples of formative points of collection within an impressively differentiated ensemble, underpinned by the always tight and spirited house orchestra the conductors Marek Šedivý and Jakub Klecker and the choir, which is particularly convincing in terms of performances, which becomes a key protagonist, especially in “Secret”.
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