The first director was Angelo Neumann, who brought there distinguished musicians and set high artistic standards so that the theatre soon reached international recognition.

Guest artists included Nellie Melba, Enrico Caruso, Emma Calvé, Lilli Lehmann, Selma Kurz, Maria Jeritza, Richard Tauber and Leo Slezak.

The Czechoslovak state expressed an interest in the building but the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939 and establishment of the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia" thwarted its plans.

Under the new title Deutsches Opernhaus (German Opera House), the theatre served for political assemblies of the Nazi Party, and for the occasional guest presentations by ensembles from the Reich.

A group of Czech artists headed by Alois Hába, Václav Kašlík, and Antonín Kurš founded the Theatre of the Fifth of May in the former German Opera House.

A striking new theatrical production of Jacques Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann on 29 August 1946 and a non-traditional staging of the previously untouchable Bedřich Smetana's The Bartered Bride, were followed by Alois Hába's quarter-tone opera Mother, Sergei Prokofiev's Betrothal in a Monastery, and others.

The repertoire provided for productions of Czech contemporary operas, but the works of Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák and Leoš Janáček were not neglected.

Due to its large stage facilities, the Smetana Theatre was frequently used by international opera, ballet and drama companies invited to Prague for guest performances.

What earned him an unambiguous critical praise, though, was most notably his systematic cultivation of the legacy of 20th century production (Alexander Zemlinsky, Hans Krása, Gottfried von Einem).

New productions of Scott Joplin´s Treemonisha; Ruggero Leoncavallo's La bohème; Eugen d'Albert's Tiefland; and Leonard Bernstein's Candide have all been key works in the house's program-building policy.

Vocelka has also continued a tradition of staging benefit concerts for many charitable and humanitarian concerns and has made the theatre available for cultural and social events.

Drawing material from a wide array of sources, both domestic and international, the publication grouped together an invaluable literary and photographic archive, including a number of documents which were published for the first time.