Smetana, B.: Dalibor

   in Opera Now (Jan, 2016)
A rarity is Smetana’s Dalibor (1868), which, to the composer’s chagrin, never had the same success as The Bartered Bride. So is Dalibor worth reviving? The music certainly is, with a rich score full of drama and effect, though more than a little bombastic at times. The vocal lines give the singers opportunities both to declaim and to soar. The lurid plot is dramatically less successful, concerning the developing love between Dalibor, a mediaeval knight, for Milada, whose brother he has murdered; they ultimately die together as she attempts to rescue him by storming his prison. It would need a strong directorial hand to stage it, and this performance was …