The Bartered Bride premieres

JAN 01 1866 · 12:00

Prodaná nevěsta, piano score cover, 1909 edition Place: Provisional Theatre, Vltava embankment Figures: Bedřich Smetana, conducting · Karel Sabina, librettist · the audience, half of which will be Prussian soldiers within the month Smetana finishes the first version of Prodaná nevěsta in early 1866. It is short, in two acts, with spoken dialogue rather than recitative. Karel Sabina's libretto is a village comedy: a girl is sold by her father in advance to the wealthy Mícha family; she loves a stranger named Jeník; the stranger turns out to be the older Mícha son, returned in disguise; the contract was binding only in its strict letter, and he is the man named in it. Everyone is satisfied. The premiere on May 30, 1866 is received politely. The house is not full. Four days later, on June 3, Austria declares war on Prussia. Within a fortnight Prussian forces are advancing through Bohemia. The opera plays twice, then closes.