The Bartered Bride the plot [...] is taken from village life and demands a national treatment." According to his biographer John Clapham, Smetana "certainly felt the pulse of the peasantry and knew how to express this in music, yet inevitably he added something of himself." Historian Harold Schonberg argues that "the exoticisms of the Bohemian musical language were not in the Western musical consciousness until Smetana appeared." Smetana's musical language is, on the whole, one of happiness, expressing joy, dancing and festivals. The mood of the entire opera is set by the overture, a concert piece in its own right, which Tyrrell describes
Matus Tomko Dvorak International Vocal Competition in opera singing in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. As a principal soloist at the State Theatre in Kosice he has sung many roles of the world repertoire (Brander in Faust, Mícha – in the Bartered Bride, Samuel Ribbing in Un Ballo in Maschera by G. Verdi, Marchese d'Obigny in La Traviata by G. Verdi, Masetto in Don Giovanni by W. A. Mozart, captain Zuniga in Carmen by G. Bizet, etc.). In 2009, he performed the role of Jan (John) in the worldwide premiere of the original Slovak opera - Šavol (Saul) of which the music was