BBC Symphony Orchestra ‒ casting new light on Smetana's tragic opera, Dalibor

In the past the BBC Symphony Orchestra's former chief conductor Jiří Bělohlávek has conducted a number of Czech operas by Dvořák, Smetana, Janáček and Martinů in highly successful concert performances.

A few years ago we performed Dvořák's The Jacobin which was huge fun for everybody and I remember being surprised to learn that Dvořák had actually written nine others. Yet, surprisingly, his most popular opera, Rusalka, was not staged in London until English National Opera performed it in 1983. The Met in New York waited until 1993 to premiere it and Covent Garden (amazingly) as recently as 2003!

Smetana's jolly The Bartered Bride fared better (reaching London in 1907) and is regularly staged, yet we scarcely hear a semi-quaver of his other eight operas. Part of the problem (as one who has struggled even to pronounced 'Jiří' correctly) is the Czech language: for most people it is very difficult to get your tongue around.

Two weeks ago the BBCSO performed Smetana's third opera, Dalibor. It is a romantic tragedy similar in story to Beethoven's Fidelio. While the story is unlikely (the sister of the murdered Burgrave falls in love with his murderer, Dalibor), the music is wonderfully fluent, and typical of Smetana. Despite the gruesome story, Smetana includes the folk elements that he loved so much ‒ polkas, fanfares and even a March in 3/4 time! But there is much warmth and beauty in the score too.

Notable amongst all of our opera performances has been the uniformly excellent Czech cast, many of whom have positions at the National Opera house in Prague. As Czech is a notoriously difficult language to sing in, and given that composers such as Smetana and Janáček relied heavily on the sound and rhythm of the language in their music, it makes perfect sense to use native speakers. It has always been a privilege to work alongside them.

As usual, Jiří sang along (very quietly) all the way through with the soloists and the BBC Singers, but managed to balance the orchestra perfectly so that we would not overwhelm the singers, sometimes a risk when orchestras come out of the opera theatre pit and accompany casts on stage.

Dalibor drew excellent reviews in the Press and you can listen to the broadcast at 2pm on Thursday 14 May, or for thirty days on the BBC iPlayer.

Na zdravi!

• Dalibor on BBC Radio 3, with cast and synopsis
• About the composer - Smetana
• BBC Symphony Orchestra