Smetana returns from Gothenburg

JAN 01 1861 · 12:00

Bedřich Smetana, studio portrait, Library of Congress copy Place: Prague, returning from Gothenburg, Sweden Figures: Bedřich Smetana, composer · the audience of a city in which Czech opera is suddenly possible Smetana leaves Prague for Gothenburg in 1856, conducting choirs and giving piano recitals in a Hanseatic town that pays him properly and asks no political questions. The October Diploma of 1860 and the February Patent of 1861 begin to thaw the Bach absolutism that drove him out. The empire concedes constitutional life. Czech-language theatre, Czech-language music, Czech-language publishing all become things that can be done in public again. He returns in May 1861. He is thirty-seven. He has been writing piano études and tone poems. He has not yet written an opera.