Smetana: The Devil's Wall. Opera in 3 Acts

Smetana's opera, The Devil's Wall, to the libretto of Eliška Krásnohorská, is his last finished stage work. The story, oscillating between reality and fantasy, with the occasional tinge of comedy, offered the composer a fine chance to create an original stage vehicle presenting a blend of delicate humour, tender emotionality, devilish horror, and subjective lyricism. The character of the Devil and the infernal element at large represent one of the opera's dominant features, as regards both plot and music. Full of complex and abrupt changes of scene, the opera was less than successful on its first night in 1882, as it proved well beyond the capacities of the day's stage production technologies. The Devil's Wall eventually got its full rehabilitation on stage in the twentieth century, with the emergence of modern-day stage design. Here is a vintage recording being reintroduced onto the market in a sensitive state-of-the-art polished and upgraded version, originally made in 1960 by the phenomenal conductor Zdeněk Chalabala, with an élite cast of singers from the Prague National Theatre's opera company. This is a title from Supraphon's golden library,and a sure promise of a true listening thrill for today's disc collector.

The Devil's Wall: A work of genius and a major artistic attraction.