Bedřich Smetana
Gradually Smetana’s reputation grew and he started to write operas in Czech which became very popular. The first one was called The Brandenburgers in Bohemia. Mayr made things very difficult for Smetana but the audience loved the opera and it was performed ten more times. His next opera is the one which has become his best-known opera internationally: The Bartered Bride. Smetana got the job of director of the Provisional Theatre instead of Mayr. Smetana made lots of improvements, introducing well-known German, French and Italian operas to the audiences as well as new operas by young Czech composers. The operas Dalibor was first performed on the day that the first stone was laid for the building of the National Theatre. It was a great occasion, although the music critics were unkind and said that his music sounded too much like Wagner. His opera Libuše was written for the coronation of Franz Joseph in Prague, but that coronation never happened, so the opera was not performed for another ten years when the National Theatre was opened (1881). He spent several years composing a cycle of six symphonic poems called Ma Vlast (My Country). These are very popular today, especially the second one, Vltava, which describes the river Vltava flowing from its source all the way to the sea.