The Bartered Bride to the Offenbach genre. Smetana was hurt by this remark, which he felt downgraded his opera to operetta status, and was convinced that press hostility had been generated by a former adversary, the Russian composer Mily Balakirev. The pair had clashed some years earlier, over the Provisional Theatre's stagings of Glinka's "A Life for the Tsar" and "Ruslan and Lyudmila". Smetana believed that Balakirev had used the Russian premiere of "The Bartered Bride" as a means of exacting revenge. "The Bartered Bride" was not performed abroad again until after Smetana's death in 1884. It was staged by the Prague National
The Bartered Bride whom you've bought"), wondering how anyone could believe that he would really do this, and finally expressing his love for Mařenka. Kecal summons the villagers to witness the contract he has made ("Come inside and listen to me"). He reads the terms: Mařenka is to marry no one but Mícha's son. Krušina and the crowd marvel at Jeník's apparent self-denial, but the mood changes when they learn that he has been paid off. The act ends with Jenik being denounced by Krušina and the rest of the assembly as a rascal. Vašek expresses his confusions in a short, sad song