"We will stay true to each other at all times." - Bedřich Smetana
He already played the violin at the age of five, unfortunately, his father did not understand his talent. After graduating from elementary school, he went to study at a grammar school in Pilsen. However, he didn't study much, choosing to rather dedicate his time to music. After graduating, he goes to work in Prague, where he makes a living as a music teacher. At that time he began composing his first songs.
Then in 1848 he founded his music school and married Kateřina Kolářová. From 1856 to 1861 he lived in Gothenburg, Sweden, where he composed other polkas and conducted classical music concerts. When he returned to Bohemia in 1859, his first wife died. In Bohemia, he often stayed in Obříství, where he married Barbora ("Betty") Ferdinand in 1860 and returned to Sweden for another year. After that, he applied in vain for the position of director of the Prague Conservatory and struggled with financial problems.
His success was ensured by the performance of the operas The Brandenburges in Bohemia and The Bartered Bride, which he composed at the summer residence in Obříství. Thanks to this success, in 1866 he became the principal conductor of the Provisional Theater.
In the summer of 1874 he lost his hearing in his right ear and in the autumn he became completely deaf. In June 1875 he moved from Prague to a hunting lodge in Jabkenice near Mladá Boleslav to visit his daughter Žofia. But deafness did not break him and he continued to compose the operas The Secret, The Kiss, and the Devil's Wall, the piano cycles Dreams and Czech Dances, a number of choral works, and he even completed the symphonic cycle Má vlast (My Homeland). But then his health suddenly deteriorated and he had to be transferred to the Institute for the Mentally Ill in Prague on April 20, 1884, where he died shortly after.
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