Dalibor. Opera in 3 Acts.

Act 2 - Change of Stage 2


  • Recorded: 6th January 1951
  • Record Place: Domovina Studio
  • First Release: 1951
  • (P) 1951 SUPRAPHON
  • Genre: Opera

Artists

  • music by: Bedřich Smetana
  • libretto by: Josef Wenzig
  • libretto by: Ervín Špindler
  • conductor: Jaroslav Krombholc
  • musical group: Prague National Theatre Orchestra

Album

Prague National Theatre Orchestra Jaroslav Krombholc

Smetana: Dalibor. Opera in 3 Acts

Catalogue Number: SU 3541-2
Published: 14th May 2001
Genre: Opera
Format: 2 disks
This album has received following awards:
  • Diapason d'Or de l' Année - Diapason Magazine (2001)
One of the first complete sets of Czech opera recordings to have been produced in post-World War II Czechoslovakia by then newly established Supraphon record company was that of Smetana's Dalibor, made in the Domovina Studio in the autumn of 1950. The project brought together a truly impressive array of stars of the Czech music scene. The conductor was Jaroslav Krombholc, then 32, a pupil of Václav Talich, who invited a team of distinguished collaborators including chorus master Jarmil Burghauser and three leading singers of the Prague National Theatre opera company: the tenor Beno Blachut (Dalibor), soprano Marie Podvalová (Milada), and baritone Václav Bednář (King Vladislav). The plot of Dalibor is set against a historical background as described by the Czech Humanistic scholar Viktorin Kornel ze Všehrd, and taken over in the 19th century by František Palacký who incorporated it into his History of the Czech Nation. In international musicological literature, Dalibor has occasionally been labelled the "Czech Fidelio." While the parallel may seem appropriate taking into account the disguise of the heroines in both vehicles in men's clothes, in fact there the similarity more or less ends: indeed, Milada happens to be of an entirely different stock from Leonora. Moreover, what is concerned here is not a story of love between husband and wife, but one of destructive passion embraced by the heroine against her will and common sense at the first sight of the title hero, an extraordinarily handsome man of bold gestures and unshakable determination to avenge the death of his slain friend Zdeněk.

Disk 1

Bedřich Smetana
Dalibor. Opera in 3 Acts.
1. Act 1 - Overture; Scene 1 "Today the judgement will be passed" 03:58
2. Act 1, Scene 1 "An orphan, abandoned" 04:44
3. Act 1, Scene 1 - March 02:25
4. Act 1, Scene 2 "You know by now how our kingdom fair" 03:44
5. Act 1, Scene 3 "Step forward without fear" 03:27
6. Act 1, Scene 3 "The sun did set" 07:04
7. Act 1, Scene 4 "Ah, what a sight!" 01:23
8. Act 1, Scene 4 "I won't deny it, lies are not my province!" 05:30
9. Act 1, Scene 4 "Committing crime thou hast thus helped thyself!" 03:01
10. Act 1, Scene 4 "Thus, Dalibor, reads judgement unanimous" 05:08
11. Act 1, Scene 5 "Here do you see me bending low" 03:36
12. Act 1, Scene 6 "What storm here in my bosom is raging" 03:24
13. Act 2, Scene 1 "Oh, yes, the gayest is this our world" 03:35
14. Act 2, Scene 1 "By this gay song" 02:32
15. Act 2, Scene 1 "Of Dalibor's fate didst thou surely hear!" 02:17
16. Act 2, Scene 2 "Oh, yes, the gayest is this our world" 06:40
17. Act 2 - Change of Stage 1, Scene 1 "Here greatest vigilance is needed" 04:20
18. Act 2, Scene 2 "Oh, how saddening is a jailer's life, how hard" 02:37
19. Act 2, Scene 3 "Everything's ready" 05:01

Disk 2

Bedřich Smetana
Dalibor. Opera in 3 Acts.
1. Act 2, Scene 4 "Oh, goodness!" 02:46
2. Act 2, Scene 5 "Here is the violin!" 05:55
3. Act 2 - Change of Stage 2 01:59
4. Act 2, Scene 1 "It was he again?" 04:33
5. Act 2, Scene 2 "Accept, I beg, this trifle from my hand" 03:19
6. Act 2, Scene 2 "Dalibor, I beg your pardon" 03:24
7. Act 2, Scene 2 "Oh, unspeakable charm of love" 04:58
8. Act 3 - Overture, Scene 1 "Glorious King" 03:12
9. Act 3, Scene 1 "It will be near to forty years" 03:43
10. Act 3, Scene 2 "At this late hour" 05:16
11. Act 3 , Scene 2 "Are now you ready?" 05:27
12. Act 3 - Change of Stage 1, Scene 3 "It's the third night" 03:07
13. Act 3, Scene 4 "Oh, heaven! He shook his chains!" 05:26
14. Act 3, Scene 4 "Let so it be!" 03:52
15. Act 3 - March (A la marcia, ma non troppo allegro) 01:52
16. Act 3, Change of Stage - Scene 5 "No trace as yet of our convened signal?" 05:20
17. Act 3, Scene 6 "Milada!" 05:51
18. Act 3, Scene 6 "Oh, behold this tender rosebud"; Scene 7 "Enemy troops" 01:56