Why shouldn't we look forward to Smetana?

In 2024, it will be 200 years since the birth of Bedřich Smetana – a composer who laid the foundations of Czech music and, in a broader context, Czech culture. As part of the Year of Czech Music, the Smetana200 program will take place throughout the country, the basic goal of which is to celebrate the personality of Bedřich Smetana and his work, spread awareness of his music and, in this context, promote the image of the Czech Republic as a country with enormous musical and cultural potential. Not only in connection with this anniversary, the Brno Municipal Theatre decided to look at one of Smetana's most famous works through its own lens and chose the comic musical play The Bartered Bride for a new premiere at the Bishop's Court. It is certainly no surprise that the audience will not be presented with the traditional performance of the popular Prodanka, but rather a new original treatment of this iconic work. In 1883, Vilém Černický, a civil servant, journalist, publicist and editor of Textilní listy, wrote a one-act comedy entitled Why Should We Not Be Happy? The play was dedicated to the Czech National Theatre Cooperative in Brno, which at that time had been actively trying for two years to create the conditions for the establishment of an independent Brno theatre, performing regularly in Czech in what was until then, in terms of culture, almost exclusively German.