Leader, Frank Thomas
Conductor, Idris Lewis
Arthur Fear (bass-baritone)
Smetana was an intensely national composer, and Prague was his centre. In that city he produced eight operas, written on Czech subjects and based upon Czech music. Of these, The Bartered Bride is the most famous. It is one of the most delicious comic operas ever written, full not only of lovely sparkling melody, but of dramatic life and colour. There is hardly a page of the whole score that is not unmistakably Czech in flavour.