United States Smetana, Dalibor: Soloists, Bard Festival Chorale, American Symphony Orchestra / Leon Botstein (conductor). SummerScape Opera, Fischer Center at Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson, 30.8.2025. (RP)
Master musical exhumer Leon Botstein turned his attention to Smetana’s Dalibor for the 2025 edition of Bard SummerScape. As with recent, fully-staged productions of Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane, Saint-Saëns’s Henry VIII, Meyerbeer’s Le prophète and other opera rarities at the festival, he struck gold with Dalibor.
The opera’s premiere with Smetana conducting took place in 1868 on the day that the cornerstone was laid for the National Theatre. It is based on Dalibor of Kozojedy, the fifteenth-century Czech knight who championed the oppressed and was executed for his actions. The plot has unescapable similarities to Beethoven’s Fidelio, and the influence of Wagner is obvious. That premiere was not a success: Dalibor was dismissed as too German at a time when the spirit of Czech nationalism was in the air.
Smetana died believing the opera had been a failure, but a later revival in Prague proved to be a success. In 1892, Gustav Mahler conducted Dalibor at the Vienna State Opera, but it remains a rarity outside of the Czech Republic. The Bard production is the US staged premiere of the opera, although the intrepid Eve Queler presented it in a concert version with the Opera Orchestra of New York in 1977.
The plot revolves around the knight killing the Burgrave of Ploškovice in revenge for the murder of the musician Zdeněk. Sentenced to death for the murder, Dalibor’s sentence is reduced to life imprisonment after the court is moved by the knight’s account of what happened to his best friend. Milada, the Burgrave’s sister, who initially demanded Dalibor’s death, falls in love with him after hearing his story and decides to set him free.
Disguised as a boy, Milada finds work at the castle where Dalibor is being held in the dungeon. She convinces the jailer, Beneš, to allow her to visit Dalibor, and she does so carrying a violin for the prisoner. At first, Dalibor thinks Milada is Zdeněk, but she explains everything, and they fall in love. One of the violin strings breaks when Dalibor sings of his impending liberation, which he believes is a bad omen. His premonition proves right: Milada and her followers storm the castle, she is wounded and dies in his arms, and Dalibor takes his own life.
Jean-Romain Vesperini sets the action in the fifteenth century. The stage features a large double staircase that effectively functions as a courtroom, a castle, a dungeon and a military camp. Dalibor’s mistake of confusing Milada for Zdeněk is believable since she is dressed like the man’s ghost: the mute but very much alive Patrick Andrews, who is also on the stage.
This complex love triangle is also expressed in large, lifelike projections of Milada, Zdeněk and a floating violin. This is the most complicated part of the story, and it takes a leap of faith to make it believable. Étienne Guiol’s projections elevate it to a mystical state, making it real and convincing.
The cast went from strength to strength. John Matthew Myers cut a romantic figure as the Czech knight and sang heroically. In Dalibor’s two killer arias, in the first of which he sings of his love for his friend and, in the second, of his impending freedom, Myers poured out glorious sound with impressive stamina. His love duet with Cadie J. Bryan’s Milada was ravishing. Bryan was the embodiment of courage, vocally and visually, and everything about her singing impressed, especially her thrilling high notes.
Alfred Walker, with his forthright, burnished baritone, gave a nuanced portrayal of Vladislav, the king who extends clemency to Dalibor in the first act and orders his death in the third. As Jitka, an orphan befriended by Dalibor and allied with Milada in rescuing the knight, Erica Petrocelli displayed an exciting voice and was a vivid stage presence. Terrence Chin-Loy was equally winning as her boyfriend, Vitek, and their lyrical duet in Act II was one of the most beautiful moments of the performance. Eric Greene also made a fine contribution as Budivoj.
With the jailor Beneš, Smetana created a wonderful character that Wei Wu brought to life with his flair for comedy and a terrific bass voice. His low notes are a wonder. With this performance, there was a glimpse of what a great Baron Ochs Wei Wu could be in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier.
Putting aside a Wagnerian leitmotif or two, Smetana’s colorful music is pure Czech. It contains impressive brass fanfares, lilting melodies, stirring arias and duets and two atmospheric intermezzos, as well as a rollicking chorus for Vitek’s men. Botstein conducted with his usual measured approach, ever alert to detail and the pacing of the action, and the American Symphony Orchestra did fine work in the pit. The men of the Bard Festival Chorale not only sang well but proved themselves to be scene stealers on a par with Wu Wei’s wonderful Beneš.
Rick Perdian
Production:
Direction – Jean-Romain Vesperini
Sets – Bruno de Lavenère
Costumes – Alain Blanchot
Lighting – Christophe Chaupin
Projection – Étienne Guiol
Hair & Makeup – Anika Seitu
Cast:
Vladislav – Alfred Walker
Dalibor – John Matthew Myers
Budivoj – Eric Greene
Beneš – Wei Wu
Vítek – Terrence Chin-Loy
Milada – Cadie J. Bryan
Jitka – Erica Petrocelli
Zdeněk’s ghost – Patrick Andrews
Judge – Aaron Theno