Jaroslav Kyzlink

Nobody wants to dance with the quirky and a little cheeky Káča (Kate) at a party. Angry, she declares that she would dance with the Devil. So when he arrives as the dashing Marbuelo, she is swept off her feet down to hell. With the help of the clever Shepherd Jirka, will Káča make it back to earth? Might the Devil actually be relieved to see the back of his garrulous and feisty visitor?

The most popular Czech comic opera, with a libretto by Karel Sabina, marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bedřich Smetana, in the current production of the National Theater in Prague. For more than 150 years, The Bartered Bride has dominated Czech opera. No one else, not even Smetana himself, has managed to surpass its popularity, which over the years has become part of our national DNA, so to speak. At the time of its creation in the 1860s, however, The Bartered Bride was actually quite a bold experiment – Bedřich Smetana and librettist Karel Sabina masterfully mocked all those who imagined "national opera" as an idyllic picture of the Czech countryside, where national virtues reign supreme.