Closely allied to the German school of opera is that of Bohemia, of
which the most famous representative is Smetana (1824-1884). Outside the
frontiers of his native land, Smetana was practically unknown until the
Vienna Exhibition of 1890, when his opera, 'Die verkaufte Braut,' was
produced for the first time in the Austrian capital. Since then it has
been played in many German opera-houses, and was performed in London in
1895, and again in 1907. The story is simplicity itself. Jenik, a young
peasant, and Marenka, the daughter of the rich farmer Krusina, love each
other dearly; but Kezal, a kind of go-between in the Bohemian
marriage-market, tells Krusina that he can produce a rich husband for
his daughter in the shape of Vasek, the son of Micha. The avaricious old
man jumps at the proposal, but Marenka will have nothing to say to the
arrangement, for Vasek is almost an idiot, and a stammerer as well.
Kezal then proceeds to buy Jenik out for three hundred gulden. The
latter, however, stipulates that in the agreement it shall only be set
down that Marenka is to marry the son of Micha. The contract is signed
and the money is paid, whereupon Jenik announces that he is a long-lost
son of Micha by a youthful marriage, and carries off the bride, to the
discomfiture of his enemies. If Smetana owes anything to anybody it is
to Mozart, whose form and system of orchestration his own occasionally
recalls, but his music is so thoroughly saturated with the melodies and
rhythms of Bohemia, that it is quite unnecessary to look for any source
of inspiration other than the composer's own native land.
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