Further Reading
16th September 2024
Our guest-contributor Rob Cowan explores Supraphon's complete edition of the Czech composer's eight finished operas plus the fragment Viola - made in Prague and Brno between 1960 and 1983, the recordings were reissued in July to mark the bicentenary of Smetana's birth.
Amongst the works of Bedrich Smetana, operas are at the forefront alongside the cycle of symphonic poems Ma vlast as the linchpins of the composer's creative legacy. Nine operas in all, the last being unfinished, demonstrate the composer's dramatic talent and individuality. The history of the Supraphon label has seen the making of a series of Smetana opera recordings interpreted by generations of Czech singers who performed mainly on the stage of the Prague National Theatre. The first and only time Smetana's operas were published as a complete on LP by Supraphon was within a vast four-part project covering Smetana's complete works released in the Year of Czech Music between 1984 and 1985. This representative set contained the recordings dating from the 1960s through the 1980s, but with the exception of The Bartered Bride, they are not currently available on the market as a physical product. To the still unsurpassed recording of The Bartered Bride and The Secret under the baton of Zdenek Kosler, we are adding his exceptional 1983 production of Libuse for the reopening of the Prague National Theatre. We are also including the only Supraphon recording of The Brandenburgers in Bohemia led by Jan Hus Tichy, Zdenek Chalabala's still definitive reading of The Devil's Wall, and Dalibor conducted by Jaroslav Krombholc. The luxurious 17CD box contains seven separately packaged 2CD sets plus one 3CD set with detailed information about the individual operas, a 40-page booklet with a comprehensive study, a wealth of photographic documentation, and a link to the downloadable librettos in the Czech and English languages. The newly digitally transferred and remastered recordings also faithfully capture the sound of the Czech Smetana tradition when heard using digital Hi-Res quality playback
