Par SMETANA BEDRICH. Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884) only began to devote himself intensively to the project of an original opera in Czech at the age of 38. The libretto of 'The Bartered Bride”, the second of Smetana's nine operas, was written for Smetana by the poet and journalist Karel Sabina. The subject chosen for the comic opera was the story of a pair of lovers in the countryside whose relations…