Music of Smetana

Synopsis

First performance of Smetana’s opera fragment Viola, which is based on Twelfth Night.The music, performed by the BBC Theatre Chorus and Orchestra, includes the overture of the opera as well as other musical excerpts from Smetana’s compositions. The narration accompanying the programme was written by Bedrich Belohlavek and spoken by Leo Glenn. Stanford Robinson conducts. With Victoria Sladen (soprano), Henry Wendon (tenor), Arthur Sandford (piano).

Series

Sunday Rhapsody

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Medium

Radio

Transmission details

26 Apr 1946 at 21:30 (Channel: BBC Home Service)

Duration

60 mins

Availability

No archive copy known (1/2008).

Credits

Producer

Harold Neden; Stanford Robinson

Writer

Bedrich Belohlavek

Music

Bedrich Smetana

Contributor

Leo Genn

Additional Details

Production type

Operas and Musicals

Plays

Twelfth Night

Subjects

Drama; Music

Keywords

Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Notes

General

In 1883-1884 Smetana worked on his last and unfinished opera Viola, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, which had occupied him for many years. He managed to write 363 bars before he was taken to the Prague Institute for the Mentally Ill where he died shortly after on 12 May,1884.

Production Company

Name

BBC

Notes

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)