{"id":203,"date":"2015-01-20T19:00:15","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T19:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/program_note\/overture-bartered-bride\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T22:08:42","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T22:08:42","slug":"overture-bartered-bride","status":"publish","type":"program_note","link":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/program_note\/overture-bartered-bride\/","title":{"rendered":"Overture to The Bartered Bride"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smetana\u2019s most familiar composition is probably The Moldau<\/em>, and now we encounter what is surely his other popular “hit\u201d\u2014and deservedly so.\u00a0 Smetana was the first great Czech composer of the nineteenth century, and\u2014owing to the general trend towards nationalism during the late romantic period\u2014the first significant Czech composer to integrate indigenous folk elements into his musical style.\u00a0 He is known the world over for having composed what is more or less the Czech national opera, The Bartered Bride <\/em>(1866), a delightful comedic opera that is performed almost every year in Prague to the enchantment of tourists and natives, alike.\u00a0 While the world of opera today is a diverse one, during the early and middle nineteenth century it was the domain of the Italians and the French–and to a lesser degree, the Germans.<\/p>\n

Early on, Smetana was a follower of the so-called New German School of Liszt and Wagner, but later determined to establish a true Czech operatic style.\u00a0 His second effort in the genre, The Bartered Bride<\/em> (better translated as \u201cthe sold bride\u201d) did not garner immediate success, but by the 1890s it was achieving worldwide recognition.\u00a0\u00a0 Mahler conducted its American premi\u00e8re at the Metropolitan Opera in 1909; he was so fond of it that he even quoted a snippet of it in the final movement of his first symphony.<\/p>\n

Unusually, the overture was written before the opera, proper, and really doesn\u2019t quote any themes from the opera; it just functions as a marvelous and vivacious mood setter.\u00a0 The opening is a bit unusual:\u00a0 it begins with a spirited string fugato.\u00a0\u00a0 That is, rather than the whole orchestra kicking off with a loud beginning, the various members of the string section enter one by one with an intense, running figure that is somewhat like a fugue.\u00a0\u00a0 Later, we encounter other themes that exemplify the composer\u2019s mastery of the wonderful syncopated world of Bohemian dance rhythms.\u00a0 It\u2019s a joyful, delightful overture that aptly begins an opera whose gaiety has never failed to please audiences everywhere.<\/p>\n

–Wm. E. Runyan<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2015 William E. Runyan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"program_note_tax":[25],"class_list":["post-203","program_note","type-program_note","status-publish","hentry","program_note_tax-bedichsmetana"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/program_note"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"program_note_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note_tax?post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}