Composer · 1824 - 1884
Bedřich Smetana
Biography
Bedřich Smetana: (b Litomyšl, 2 March 1824; d Prague, 12 May 1884). Czech composer, conductor and critic.
The first Czech nationalist composer and the most important of the new generation of Czech opera composers writing from the 1860s. His eight operas established a canon of Czech operas to serve as models for Czech nationalist opera and have remained in the Czech repertory ever since. Such was the force of his musical personality that his musical style became synonymous with Czech nationalist style, his name a rallying point for the polemics which were to continue in Czech musical life into the next century.