FULL THE DEVIL’s WALL (Smetana) Prague 1973 Jan Bajer, Miroslav Svejda, Jana Smitkova, Beno Blachut

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: The Devil's Wall or Čertova stěna  
• Composer: Smetana Bedrich  
• Libretto: Eliška Krásnohorská  
• Venue & Opera Company: On location Czech Republic  
• Recorded: 1973
• Type: Movie
• Singers: Jan Bajer, Miroslav Svejda, Jana Smitkova, Beno Blachut, Marta Bohacova, Zdenek Kroupa, Karel Hanus
• Conductor: Frantisek Vajnar  
• Orchestra: Orchestra of the National Opera Prague  
• Chorus Master: Pavel Kühn  
• Choreographer: Hana Machova  
• Stage Director: Zdenek Kubeček  
• Stage Designer: Jindrich Goetz  
• Costume Designer: Theodor Pistek  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Czeske Televize  
• Date Published: 1973  
• Format: Broadcast
• Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
• Subtitles: nosubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  Bedřich Smetana composed his last opera during a time of severe depression and illness, essentially alone, in Jabkenice. He transformed and completed the original libretto of Eliška Krásnohorská’s romantic fairy tale in accordance with his own feelings. The weight of the split personality – the devil and the monk – was touching him. He was also close to the melancholy of Vokov, betrayed by life, or the passionate desire of Jarkov. He embodied the weight of his fate and his reconciliation with it in a work that became not only a celebration of the greatest emotion – love, but also a new compositional effort that was in many ways ahead of its time. The Devil’s Wall is a modern opera, its music already belongs to the 20th century by its character. The composer was even worse impressed by the sloppy staging of his first performance at the New Czech Theater on October 29, 1882, which caused the audience to not understand this opera and to receive it coldly. However, the Devil’s Wall has been part of the repertoire of our leading opera scenes for decades, and acts as a rare jewel in Smetana’s opera legacy. Director Zdenek Kubeček was inspired by this work more than fifty years ago to create an impressive dramatic film image. The open-air opera, which is attractively processed as a film (e.g. the costumes were created by T. Pištěk), is sung by opera singers off-screen, according to the conventions of the time, and their roles are mostly played by actors in the screen, with the exception of B. Blachut, who also portrays the role of Michálek.

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