The opera “Hubicka” (“The Kiss”) by Bedrich Smetana, a “dramma giocoso” in the Czech national spirit

Abstract

2024 occasions the anniversary of 200 years from composer Bedřich Smetana’s birth, considered the founder of Czech national music. Two of his works, the opera The Bartered Bride) and the symphonic poem Vltava also receive wide acclaim nowadays. In the eight operas he finalised, quite different in action and meaning, the composer puts together Bohemian folklore and mythology, Wagnerian sonorities, influences from French comic opera in a manner identified with the style proper of Czech national opera. The opera Hubička (The Kiss, 1876) was catalogued as folk opera. Due to the comic nature of the music and to the contrasting episodes of the action, this study debates on and argues in favour of the inclusion of the work in the subgenre called dramma giocoso.