The Bartered Bride by Smetana, N 16 apr 2009, Alates (2009/2009), Juhatatud Pavel Mikuláštík, Dirigent Dušan Štefánek, Ondrej Olos, Slovak National Theatre Historical Building, Bratislava, Slovakia

On one occasion, Bedřich Smetana described his The Bartered Bride as a toy, which meant her lighter, comedic genre, which, in addition to large and serious authorial projects, he perceived as a kind of compositional distraction. Along with comedic poetics, the idea of ​​a national musical theater based on folk traditions also entered into this work. The composer needed four versions to create a specific Czech opera comedy from folk comedy. Of course, when writing this work, the author also took into account the national mission of the opera, which also played a political role during the national revival, but today we perceive this gem of Czech opera literature as a unique combination of typically Czech comedian with rural color with the original musical language of an exceptional composer.