The Bartered Bride discography The Bartered Bride discography This list is a discography of "The Bartered Bride" (; German: Die verkaufte Braut) by Bedřich Smetana. The opera was first performed, in its original two-act format, at the Provisional Theatre, Prague, on 30 May 1866. After substantial revisions it was premiered in its extended three-act form at the Provisional Theatre on 25 September 1870. The first complete recording of the opera was issued in 1933. Numerous recordings have since been made, in the original Czech language, in German and in English. The list includes both studio recordings and live performances, but not excerpts or highlights.
The Bartered Bride commented that despite the colour and vigour of the music, there is little by way of characterisation, except in the cases of Kecal and, to a lesser extent, the loving pair and the unfortunate Vašek. The two sets of parents and the various circus folk are all conventional and "penny-plain" figures. In contrast, Kecal's character – that of a self-important, pig-headed, loquacious bungler – is instantly established by his rapid-patter music. Large suggests that the character may have been modelled on that of the boastful Baron in Cimarosa's opera "Il matrimonio segreto". Mařenka's temperament is shown in vocal flourishes which