The much-loved national romantic composer Smetana had close ties to Gothenburg. He lived in the centre of the city for five years while in his thirties, and had a major impact on the city’s musical life. On his return to Prague, Smetana became a central figure in Bohemian society, and the rest, as they say, is history.
His opera The Bartered Bride – which was performed at the Göteborg Opera in autumn 2022 – is considered a national opus and has been performed over 2,500 times at the State Opera in Prague.
Perhaps the brightest star in the firmament of Smetana’s orchestral works is “Vltava (The Moldau)” from the cycle of six symphonic poems Má vlast (My Country), in which he depicts the Vltava River flowing through the Czech countryside. We will leave it to others to decide whether the main melody is inspired by the Swedish folksong “Ack Värmeland, du sköna”, best known in the English-speaking world as “Dear Old Stockholm”, or by similar, more southerly European melodies.
We will be celebrating the bicentenary of Smetana’s birth by performing “Vltava (The Moldau)” and other orchestral works, as well as excerpts from some of the composer’s operas such as Dalibor and The Two Widows. Our conductor will be Jiři Rožeň, an internationally renowned interpreter of Czech music.
