Family background and childhood Bedřich Smetana, first named Friedrich Smetana, was born on 2 March 1824, in
Litomyšl (German: Leitomischl), east of Prague near the traditional border between
Bohemia and
Moravia, then provinces of the
Habsburg Empire. He was the third child, and first son, of František Smetana and his third wife Barbora Linková. František had fathered eight children in two earlier marriages, five daughters surviving infancy; he and Barbora had ten more children, of whom seven reached adulthood. (1832) The Smetana family came from the
Hradec Králové (German: Königgrätz) region of Bohemia. František had initially learned the trade of a brewer, and had acquired moderate wealth during the
Napoleonic Wars by supplying clothing and provisions to the French Army. He subsequently managed several breweries before coming to Litomyšl in 1823 as brewer to
Count Waldstein, whose Renaissance castle dominates the town. František Smetana played violin in a string quartet, and Barbora Smetana was a dancer. Bedřich was introduced to music by his father and in October 1830, at the age of six, gave his first public performance. At a concert held in Litomyšl's Philosophical Academy he played a piano arrangement of
Auber's overture to
La muette de Portici, to a rapturous reception. In 1831 the family moved to
Jindřichův Hradec in the south of Bohemia—the region where, a generation later,
Gustav Mahler grew up. In 1835, František retired to
Růžkovy Lhotice Castle. whose departure for Prague in 1838 may have influenced Smetana's own desire to experience life in the capital. The following year, with František's approval, he enrolled at Prague's Academic Grammar School under
Josef Jungmann, a distinguished poet and linguist who was a leading figure in the
movement for Czech national revival.
Apprentice musician First steps Smetana arrived in Prague in the autumn of 1839. Finding Jungmann's school uncongenial (he was mocked by his classmates for his country manners), However, the Prague idyll ended when František discovered his son's truancy and removed him from the city. An older cousin, Josef Smetana, a teacher at the Premonstratensian School in
Plzeň (German: Pilsen), then offered to supervise the boy's remaining schooling, and in the summer of 1840 Smetana departed for Plzeň. He composed several pieces for her, among which are two
Quadrilles, a song duet, and an incomplete piano study for the left hand. He also composed his first orchestral piece, a B-flat minuet.
Student and teacher By the time Smetana completed his schooling, his father's fortunes had declined. Although František now agreed that his son should follow a musical career, he could not provide financial support. and no immediate prospects. Kateřina Kolářová's mother introduced Smetana to Josef Proksch, then head of the Prague Music Institute (where Kateřina was studying), with whom he began composition lessons. In 1846 Smetana attended concerts given in Prague by Berlioz, and in all likelihood met the French composer at a reception arranged by Proksch. At the home of Count Thun he met
Robert and
Clara Schumann, and showed them his G minor sonata, but failed to win their approval for this work—they detected too much of Berlioz in it.
Early career Revolutionary Smetana's concert tour to Western Bohemia was poorly supported, so he abandoned it and returned to Prague, where he made a living from private pupils and occasional appearances as an accompanist in chamber concerts. , Prague, 1848. Smetana was briefly a participant in the uprising. For a brief period in 1848, Smetana was a revolutionary. In the
climate of political change and upheaval that swept through Europe in that year, a pro-democracy movement in Prague led by Smetana's old friend Karel Havlíček was urging an end to Habsburg absolutist rule and for more political autonomy. In June 1848, as the Habsburg armies moved to suppress rebellious tendencies, Prague came under attack from the Austrian forces led by
the Prince of Windisch-Grätz. As a member of Svornost, Smetana helped to man the barricades on the
Charles Bridge. The nascent uprising was quickly crushed, but Smetana avoided the imprisonment or exile received by leaders such as Havlíček. This encouragement was the beginning of a friendship that was of great value to Smetana in his subsequent career. Despite Liszt's lack of financial support, Smetana was able to start a Piano Institute in late August 1848, with twelve students. After a period of struggle the Institute began to flourish and became briefly fashionable, particularly among supporters of
Czech nationalism, in whose eyes Smetana was developing a reputation. Proksch wrote of Smetana's support for his people's cause, and said that he "could well become the transformer of my ideas in the Czech language." In 1849 the institute was relocated to the home of Kateřina's parents, and began to attract distinguished visitors; Liszt came regularly, and the former Austrian emperor
Ferdinand, who had settled in Prague, attended the school's matinée concerts. He also wrote numerous short experimental pieces collected under the name
Album Leaves, and a series of
polkas.
Private sorrows and professional disenchantment (1854) In the years between 1854 and 1856 Smetana suffered a series of personal blows. In July 1854 his second daughter, Gabriela, died of
tuberculosis. A year later his eldest daughter Bedřiška, who at the age of four was showing signs of musical precocity, died of
scarlet fever. Smetana wrote his
Piano Trio in G minor as a tribute to her memory; it was performed in Prague on 3 December 1855 and, according to the composer, was received "harshly" by the critics, although Liszt praised it. Smetana's sorrows continued; just after Bedřiška's death a fourth daughter, Kateřina, had been born but she, too, died in June 1856. By this time Smetana's wife Kateřina had also been diagnosed with tuberculosis. The political climate in Prague was a further source of gloom; hopes of a more enlightened government and social reform following Franz Joseph's accession in 1848 had faded as
Austrian absolutism reasserted itself under
Baron Alexander von Bach.
Years of travel Gothenburg Smetana initially went to Gothenburg without Kateřina. Writing to Liszt, he said that the people there were musically unsophisticated, but he saw this as an opportunity "for an impact I could never have achieved in Prague." and become conductor of the Gothenburg Society for Classical Choral Music. , Sweden, Smetana's base between 1856 and 1861 In summer 1857, Smetana came home to Prague and found Kateřina in failing health. In June, Smetana's father František died. That autumn Smetana returned to Gothenburg, with Kateřina and their surviving daughter Žofie, but before doing so he visited Liszt in
Weimar. The occasion was the Karl August Goethe-Schiller Jubilee celebrations; Smetana attended performances of Liszt's
Faust Symphony and the symphonic poem
Die Ideale, which invigorated and inspired him. Liszt was Smetana's principal teacher throughout the latter's creative life, and at this time was crucially able to revive his spirits and rescue him from the relative artistic isolation of Gothenburg. He also began composing on a more expansive scale. In 1858 he completed the symphonic poem
Richard III, his first major orchestral composition since the
Triumphal Symphony. He followed this with ''Wallenstein's Camp'', inspired by
Friedrich Schiller's
Wallenstein drama trilogy, and began a third symphonic poem
Hakon Jarl, based on the tragic drama by Danish poet
Adam Oehlenschläger.
Bereavement, remarriage and return to Prague Kateřina's health gradually worsened and in the spring of 1859 failed completely. Homeward bound, she died at
Dresden on 19 April 1859. Smetana wrote that she had died "gently, without our knowing anything until the quiet drew my attention to her." After placing Žofie with Kateřina's mother, Smetana spent time with Liszt in Weimar, where he was introduced to the music of the comic opera
Der Barbier von Bagdad, by Liszt's pupil
Peter Cornelius. This work would influence Smetana's own later career as an opera composer. Later that year he stayed with his younger brother Karel, and fell in love with Karel's sister-in-law
Barbora (Bettina) Ferdinandiová, sixteen years his junior. He proposed marriage, and having secured her promise returned to Gothenburg for the 1859–60 winter. Meanwhile, the defeat of Franz Joseph's army at
Solferino in 1859 had weakened the Habsburg Empire and led to the fall from power of Baron von Bach. This had gradually brought a more enlightened atmosphere to Prague, and by 1861 Smetana was seeing prospects of a better future for Czech nationalism and culture. Smetana responded that "a prophet is without honour in his own land."
National prominence Seeking recognition In 1861, it was announced that a Provisional Theatre would be built in Prague, as a home for Czech opera. Smetana then turned his attention to an opera competition, organised by , which offered prizes of 600 florins each for the best comic and historical operas based on Czech culture. and received Sabina's text in February 1862, a story of the 13th century invasion of Bohemia by
Otto of Brandenburg. In April 1863 he submitted the score, under the title of
The Brandenburgers in Bohemia. and he had difficulty expressing himself in what was supposedly his native tongue. To overcome these linguistic deficiencies he studied Czech grammar, and made a point of writing and speaking in Czech every day. He had become Chorus Master of the nationalistic soon after his return from Sweden, and as his fluency in Czech developed he composed patriotic choruses for the Society;
The Three Riders and
The Renegade were performed at concerts in early 1863. In March of that year Smetana was elected president of the music section of
Umělecká beseda, a society for Czech artists. Meanwhile, Bettina had given birth to another daughter, Božena. On 23 April 1864, Smetana conducted Berlioz's
choral symphony Roméo et Juliette at a concert celebrating the
Shakespeare tercentenary, adding to the programme his own
March for the Shakespearean Festival. Again his hopes were thwarted by his association with the perceived radical Liszt, and the appointing committee chose the conservative patriot for the post. Almost three years passed before Smetana was declared the winner of Harrach's opera competition. Music historian
Rosa Newmarch believes that, although
The Brandenburgers has not stood the test of time, it contains all the germs of Smetana's operatic art.
Opera maestro In July 1863, Sabina had delivered the libretto for a second opera, a light comedy entitled
The Bartered Bride, which Smetana composed during the next three years. Because of the success of
The Brandenburgers, the management of the Provisional Theatre readily agreed to stage the new opera, which was premiered on 30 May 1866 in its original two-act version with spoken dialogue. The opera's first performance was a failure; it was held on one of the hottest evenings of the year, on the eve of the
Austro-Prussian War, with Bohemia under imminent threat of invasion by
Prussian troops. Unsurprisingly the occasion was poorly attended, and receipts failed to cover costs. When presented at the Provisional Theatre in its final form, in September 1870, it was a tremendous public success. Back in 1866, as the composer of
The Brandenburgers with its overtones of German military aggression, Smetana thought he might be targeted by the invading Prussians, so he absented himself from Prague until hostilities ceased. The quality of Smetana's production of Glinka's
A Life for the Tsar angered Glinka's champion
Mily Balakirev, who expressed himself forcefully. This caused prolonged hostility between the two men. On 28 February 1868 Smetana conducted another national opera by another Slavic composer,
Halka by
Stanisław Moniuszko. On 16 May 1868 Smetana, representing Czech musicians, helped to lay the foundation stone for the future
National Theatre;
Opposition Early in his Provisional Theatre conductorship Smetana had made a powerful enemy in , the director of the Prague School of Singing. Formerly a supporter of Smetana, Pivoda was aggrieved when the conductor recruited singing talent from abroad rather than from Pivoda's school. In an increasingly bitter public correspondence, Pivoda said Smetana was using his position to further his own career, at the expense of other composers. Pivoda then took issue with
Dalibor, calling it an example of extreme "Wagnerism" and thus unsuited as a model for Czech national opera. "Wagnerism" meant the adoption of Wagner's theories of a continuous role for the orchestra and the building of an integrated musical drama, rather than a stringing together of lyrical numbers. but was withholding its premiere for the future opening of the forthcoming National Theatre. The machinations of Pivoda and his supporters distracted Smetana from composition, Smetana was deeply offended, and blamed his old adversary, Balakirev, for inciting negative feelings against the opera. After its first performance at the Provisional Theatre on 27 March 1874, Smetana's supporters presented him with a decorative baton. He had become totally deaf in his right ear, and in October lost all hearing in his left ear also. After his subsequent resignation the theatre offered him an annual pension of 1,200 florins for the continued right to perform his operas, an arrangement Smetana reluctantly accepted. Money raised in Prague by former students, and by former lover Fröjda Benecke in Gothenburg, amounted to 1,244 florins. This allowed Smetana to seek medical treatment abroad, but to no avail. His spirits were further lowered at this time by a deterioration in his relationship with Bettina, mainly over money matters. "I cannot live under the same roof as a person who hates and persecutes me", he informed her. Although divorce was considered, the couple stayed unhappily together.
Late flowering In worsening health, Smetana continued to compose. From 1875 he stayed as a guest in
Jabkenice, the home of his eldest daughter Žofie, where he was able to work undisturbed in tranquil surroundings. From June 1876 he, Bettina, and their two daughters left Prague for Jabkenice permanently. Before leaving Prague he had begun a cycle of six symphonic poems, called
Má vlast ("My Fatherland"), and had completed the first two,
Vyšehrad and
Vltava, which had both been performed in Prague during 1875. In Jabkenice, Smetana composed four more movements, the complete cycle being first performed on 5 November 1882 under the baton of Adolf Čech. in Prague The long-delayed premiere of Smetana's opera
Libuše finally arrived when the National Theatre opened on 11 June 1881. He had not initially been given tickets, but at the last minute was asked into the theatre director's box. The audience received the work enthusiastically, and Smetana was called to the stage repeatedly. Shortly after this event the new theatre was destroyed by fire; despite his infirmities, Smetana helped to raise funds for the rebuilding. The restored theatre reopened on 18 November 1883, again with
Libuše. By the winter of 1882–83 he was experiencing depression, insomnia, and hallucinations, together with giddiness, cramp and a temporary loss of speech. He started a new opera,
Viola, based on the character in Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night, but wrote only fragments as his mental state gradually deteriorated. On 23 April his family, unable to nurse him any longer, removed him to the Kateřinky Lunatic Asylum in Prague, where he died on 12 May 1884. Tests carried out by Prof. in the late 20th century on samples of muscular tissue from Smetana's exhumed body provided further evidence of the disease. However, this research has been challenged by Czech physician Dr. , who has argued that Vlček's tests do not provide a basis for a reliable conclusion, citing the age and state of the tissues and highlighting reported symptoms of Smetana's that were incompatible with syphilis. Smetana's funeral took place on 15 May, at the
Týn Church in
Prague's Old Town. The subsequent procession to the
Vyšehrad Cemetery was led by members of the Hlahol, bearing torches, and was followed by a large crowd. On the funeral evening, a scheduled performance of
The Bartered Bride at the National Theatre was allowed to proceed, the stage draped with black cloth as a mark of respect. The younger daughters eventually married, living out their lives away from the public eye. In 1936 the museum moved to the former Waterworks building on the banks of the
Vltava, and since 1976 has been part of the Czech Museum of Music. ==Music==