Written in 1887, the opera lay unproduced for many years and was first performed at the Divadlo na Hradbách (today's Mahen Theatre) in Brno on 11 November 1925 in honour of Janáček's 71st birthday.

The premiere of the Ur-version (1887) of Šárka took place on 26 November 2010 at the Reduta Studio Theatre Brno as part of the Janáček Biennale, conducted from the piano by Ondrej Olos, with Lucie Kašparová in the title role.

Šárka plans to trap the young male warrior, and the maidens tie her to a tree, apparently open and helpless.

During the funeral for Ctirad, Šárka, grief-stricken, throws herself onto his pyre and dies in the flames, the chorus sings a lament for the lovers.

Czech Bedřich Smetana composed the tone poem Šárka as the third part of his cycle "Má Vlast", which does not contain the final suicide narrated in the opera.