Schwanda the Bagpiper (), written in 1926, is an opera in two acts and five scenes, with music by JaromÃÂr Weinberger to a Czech libretto by Miloà ¡ Kareà ¡, based on the drama Strakonický dudák aneb Hody divých à ¾en (The Bagpiper of Strakonice) by Josef Kajetán Tyl.
Its first performance was in Prague at the Czech National Opera on 27 April 1927; and the first German production followed (in the translation by Max Brod as Schwanda der Dudelsackpfeifer), at Breslau on 16 December 1928. After that success, German-language productions proliferated around the world, with over 2000 performances taking place during the next decade. Aside from those in Germany and Austria, these included:
At the time the opera, with its occasional use of Czech folk material, enjoyed considerable success, with translations into 17 languages. The opera fell from the repertory when the composer's music was banned by the Nazi regimes of Austria and Germany during the late 1930s; and although it is still revived occasionally, orchestral performances of the "Polka and Fugue" drawn from the opera are more regularly heard in concert and on record.
It has been a week since à  vanda and Dorotka married. The robber Babinský takes refuge in their farmhouse, and immediately falls for Dorotka. Babinský quickly convinces à  vanda of the tedium of married life, and persuades him to go off on an adventure. They arrive at the Queen's court, where she is under the power of a wicked Magician. The Queen had made a deal with the Magician where she consented to the death of the Prince, her betrothed, in exchange for a heart of ice (and thus no human feeling) and a diamond scepter, symbolic of her power. à  vanda plays his bagpipes, which breaks the spell. The Queen then offers herself to à  vanda in marriage. à  vanda accepts, kissing her, but then Dorotka appears, which angers the Queen. The Queen, her heart now again of ice, has à  vanda and Dorotka imprisoned and à  vanda condemned to death.
Babinský helps save à  vanda by replacing the executioner's axe with a broom. à  vanda plays his bagpipes again, enchanting the crowd gathered for the execution, and escapes with Dorotka. Dorotka herself is now angry at à  vanda and questions his fidelity. à  vanda retorts that if he ever kissed the Queen, may he go to Hell. Forgetting that he did kiss the Queen, à  vanda immediately drops through the earth into Hell. Babinský then tells Dorotka that he loves her, but she makes him promise to rescue à  vanda.
In Hell, the Devil asks à  vanda to play for him, since he has nothing to do, because no one will play cards with the Devil because he always cheats. à  vanda at first refuses, but then Babinský appears and challenges the Devil to a card game. By cheating even more than the Devil, Babinský wins the game and rescues à  vanda. (It is at this point that à  vanda plays the music that forms the famous Fugue.) At the end, à  vanda and Dorotka are reconciled, and Babinský sorrowfully leaves, in search of new adventures.
Complete opera
Polka and Fugue