Schwanda the Bagpiper

Schwanda the Bagpiper (Czech: Švanda dudák), written in 1926, is an opera in two acts and five scenes, with music by Jaromír Weinberger to a Czech libretto by Miloš Kareš, based on the drama Strakonický dudák aneb Hody divých žen (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.

[1] 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.

[2] 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.

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.