National Opera under Wagner’s Influence as Exemplified by Libuše by Bedřich Smetana

Abstract

The article focuses on the influence of Wagnerian ideas on the concept of 19th-century Czech national opera. This can be partly explained by the fact that Czech culture was strongly connected with German culture. However, early Czech operas, and even some of Smetana’s, were quite influenced by the German singspiel — a genre with predominantly lyrical and comic elements. Their national character was manifested mainly by folk elements within the action and the music (countryside scenery, national dances, adaptations of folk melodies). The ideal of this type of national opera is Smetana’s The Bartered Bride. The same composer created a work that presents a completely different understanding of the national style and opera. In Libuše, he tried to use the Wagnerian idea of musical drama for transforming the concept of the Czech national opera. In the article, there are quotations of the composer’s statements about Libuše as a work that has a “unique importance in our [Czech] history”. Wagner’s influences are apparent on a few levels in this operatic work. The libretto is based on the mythical story about Queen Libuše, the legendary founder of Prague, and in the opera she is a symbol of the Czech nation. Wagnerian influences are found in the formal structure (unendliche Melodie), as well as in the musical language of Libuše. Smetana used a system of leitmotifs consequently, connecting them with the characters (Libuše, Přemysl) and ideas (motifs of the nation, motif of authority). Perhaps it was under the influence of the idea of Bühnenfestpiel that Smetana designed Libuše as a slavnostni zpěvohra for special celebrations in the life of the Czech nation