New Smetana exhibition to open in Jabkenice

Fans of the Czech composer Bedrich Smetana will hopefully have a new exhibition of his life and music to visit in the near future. Smetana spent his final years living in a country retreat in the tiny Bohemian village of Jabkenice, close to Mlada Boleslav - well, Radio Prague's Peter Smith is in Jabkenice now and to find out we can expect of the new exhibition...

Hello and welcome to Jabkenice. I'm stood now in front of the hunting lodge here in Jabkenice which was the place where Bedrich Smetana lived the final few years of his life. I'm stood here now with Dr. Olga Mojzisova, the Director of the Smetana Museum in Prague. It was towards the end of his life that Smetana lived in this building, is that correct?

"Yes, the last ten years, from 1876 until 1884."

And the significance of the building is that he did write a lot of important works here.

"Yes, in his last ten years he composed a lot of his very important works here, and he couldn't work anymore in public activities because he was deaf. So he wrote here his last three operas, finished his cycle of symphonic poems - My Country. Then the most important piano cycle - Czech Dances, many choir works and his only song cycle - Evening Songs.."

We'll just have a quick look inside the hunting lodge to see what plans you have for it.. we're looking at some kind of interactive demonstration.

"The visitors will have the opportunity to take more information about Smetana and Jabkenice, and so on, on CR-ROM."

Mr. Smetana's glasses - the same as in this photo.

"Yes. We have a lot of memorabilia, many personal items and they will be here in the exhibition. If we will not receive more money from sponsors or so, we plan to open the exhibition next year in June in the time when Smetana came forever to Jabkenice."

So, there you go. Everyone who loves Smetana, make sure that you come to Jabkenice and the hunting lodge here and make sure that you visit the exhibition. Thank you very much.

"Not at all.."

The Smetana exhibition in Jabkenice very much relies upon sponsorship - anyone willing to offer assistance should contact the Museum of Bedrich Smetana in Prague - the address Novotneho lavka 4, Prague 1.