Smetana’s Libuše occupies a truly special position in Czech opera and culture as a whole. It is directly connected with our ancestors’ endeavour to restore Czech statehood and independence. It was written for the inauguration of the National Theatre in Prague, a dreamt-of artistic institution, which foreshadowed the later foundation of the Czechoslovak Republic itself. Paraphrasing an old Czech fable of Princess Libuše, in his opera Smetana does not only extol the nation’s bygone glory, he primarily accentuates an absolutely timeless ideal that today may appear as virtually unattainable – the affability, modesty, wisdom and unanimity of the representatives of a nation, and society for that matter. author: Bedřich Smetana 3 hours 20 minutes, 2 intermission 20 minutes In Czech, subtitles in Czech, English More