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 governed by high morals. The Bartered Bride is thus far more humorous than “national”. Nonetheless, its humour is precisely of the type Czechs so love, and hence Smetana’s opera, abounding in irony, scathing, occasionally even cynical, wit, as well as tenderness and simple joie de vivre, has ultimately become “national” in the best sense of the word ...

The Bartered Bride

National Theatre

And if we were to name the places at which Mozart in person premiered an opera of his and which still function as theatres, the one and only candidate in the world would be the Estates Theatre in Prague. The National Theatre Opera has proudly cherished this unique tradition for decades.

Don Giovanni

The Estates Theatre

The fruit of the collaboration between the two great creators, Antonín Dvořák and Jaroslav Kvapil, who were close as artists and friends alike, was a magical, dreamy story of the great, unfulfilled desire of the water nymph Rusalka, a work in which Dvořák’s musical genius reached its apex. The fairy-tale atmosphere inspired the composer to create singular, impressionistic music replete with melodic imagination and masterful instrumentation, a suggestive expression of the play of waves and the reflection of moonlight on the surface of a lake, as well as the overwhelming magic of a fairy-tale dream.

Rusalka

State Opera

Antonín Dvořák’s two most successful operas, The Devil and Kate, and Rusalka, are based on fairy-tale motifs. Blending folk and humorous with lyrical and fantasy elements is one of the typical (and still very popular) traits of Czech drama. Dvořák created a masterly patchwork of contrasting scenes – folksy, breezy, fiendishly fervent and courtly noble.

The Devil and Kate

National Theatre Prague

For over two centuries, Gioachino Rossini has been one of the most celebrated opera composers, and it might even have been the case if he had written nothing but Il barbiere di Siviglia. Both its genesis and premiere were connected with all kinds of twists and turns, which accompany many a play and opera. The piece had to be completed hastily, rehearsed and staged even more hastily; it was a setting of a literary work that had been used several times; the premiere was poorly received and affected by scandal, etc. In hindsight and knowing the fates of other creations, such circumstances would seem to be the best prerequisite for future success. Four years after the opera’s world premiere, in 1816 at the Teatro Argentino in Rome, Il barbiere di Siviglia was first presented, in German translation, at the Estates Theatre in Prague, which in 1825 staged the piece in Czech, owing mainly to the composer and conductor František Škroup (known primarily for creating the melody of the Czech national anthem), who would later on also give Czech premieres of operas by Wagner and others. The Provisional Theatre included Il barbiere di Siviglia in its repertoire during its very first season. Later on the opera was also undertaken by the National Theatre, which to date has adapted it in more than ten productions.

Il barbiere di Siviglia

The Secret is Bedřich Smetana’s seventh, and penultimate, opera. It is also the second fruit of the composer’s collaboration with the librettist Eliška Krásnohorská. Completed in May1878, the piece received its premiere the on 18 September at the New Czech Theatre in Prague. The National Theatre first staged the opera on 12 May 1885, on the first anniversary of Smetana’s death. Yet it only attained wide popularity after the post of the opera company’s director had been assumed by the conductor Karel Kovařovic, who was fully aware of the qualities of the mature Smetana work. Krásnohorská furnished Smetana with an exquisite libretto, whose themes may bring to mind William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet or the Czech author Ladislav Stroupežnický’s play Our Uppish and Defiant Fellows, dating from a later time.

The Secret

Although W. A. Mozart wrote Idomeneo to commission for the Munich court and Karl Theodor, Elector of Bavaria, a keen patron of the arts, who chose the subject himself, the opera is probably his most personal work (with the patriarchal system of blind obedience and a rebellion of the young seeming to evoke the composer’s tense relationship with his father Leopold), featuring excellently crafted characters. All the main protagonists are confronted with their own weaknesses or inability to defy fate. In the wake of the Trojan War, Idomeneo, King of Crete, made a fateful vow to Neptune, God of the Sea, to be executed should he arrive home safely. Just like the Old Testament’s Jephthah and Abraham, he faces the dilemma of whether to sacrifice his own child or to offend a god. Idomeneo ultimately yields, ready to kill his son, Idamante. Prince Idamante is in love with Ilia, daughter of Priam, the defeated King of Troy, who has lost her family and homeland in the war. Ilia is fond of Idamante, but hesitates to acknowledge her love of an enemy, whose father Idomeneo helped Achilles and Odysseus take Troy. Elettra, daughter of Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, is wildly jealous of Ilia, and intends to win Idamante at any cost. Mozart rendered the heroes’ extreme emotions by means of ravishingly powerful music. He and the librettist Giovanni Battista Varesco ended the Ancient Greek story happily: Idomeneo’s old order gives way to the rule of love and reason, with Idamante and Ilia ascending the throne.

Idomeneo

Bedřich Smetana’s last completed opera, The Devil’s Wall, the fruit of collaboration with Eliška Krásnohorská, who penned the librettos for his previous operas The Kiss and The Secret, bears both its originally intended comic nature and, more significantly, a final lyrical tone. The composer evidently identified with the character of the ageing nobleman Vok, projecting his own feelings, perhaps ever more so than before. This remarkable work can thus be interpreted as, among other things, a reflection on Smetana's life, one fraught with emotional upheavals.

Zdeněk Plech

Events

Upcoming events

Aug 27, 2026 - Jun 27, 2027

The Bartered Bride · Národní divadlo

Aug 28 - Nov 27, 2026

Don Giovanni · Národní divadlo

Sep 1 - Dec 11, 2026

Rusalka · Národní divadlo

Sep 3, 2026 - Mar 21, 2027

The Devil and Kate · Národní divadlo

Sep 13 - Dec 31, 2026

Il barbiere di Siviglia · Národní divadlo

Future and recently performed repertoire

Kecal in The Bartered Bride by Smetana

Národní divadlo

Water Goblin in Rusalka by Dvořák

Národní divadlo

The voice of the Oracle in Idomeneo by Mozart

Národní divadlo

Comtur in Don Giovanni by Mozart

Národní divadlo

Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini

Národní divadlo

Malina in The Secret by Smetana

Národní divadlo

Lucifer in The Devil and Kate by Dvořák

Národní divadlo

Beneš in The Devil's Wall by Smetana

Národní divadlo

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