Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/171

was by the Metropolitan Opera of New York in 1909, and in the same year the same company produced Smetana’s opera on its American tour, particularly in April, 1909. At that time Chicago did not have its opera company as yet, which was organized only in the winter of 1910. We note that the Metropolitan Opera also presented the “Bartered Bride” in the year 1910, and also on its American tour, particularly in St. Paul, where it was received with great enthusiasm. Other noteworthy productions were the following: Bedřich Smetana Choral Club of Chicago has presented it at least twelve times under the direction of Mr. Stephen Erst, now director of the Loyola University Choir. The majority of the productions in Chicago were presented at the Chicago Sokol Hall, but on several occasions it was given in the Chicago Loop district, namely at the Garrick Theatre on March 9th and 16th, 1919, at the Studebaker Theatre on March 18, 1923, and at the Blackstone Theatre on March 30, 1924. The latter production was in commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of Smetana’s birth. Last year it was produced at the Slávský Sokol in Chicago under the direction of Mr. Krejčí.

“Prodaná nevěsta” has been produced in other cities by amateur and semi-professional clubs, particularly in Cleveland, where it has been successfully presented several times by the United Choral Societies.

In conclusion we wish to thank Dr. J. E. S. Vojan of Chicago for loaning us the cut of the picture on our cover and for much of the information here presented. He was intimately connected with the first productions of Bedřich Smetana’s “Bartered Bride” in this country, and has been influential for many years in the literary and artistic clubs of New York and Chicago.

We believe that America is a composite of various nationalities of Europe. Its culture is the resultant of the cultures of the various peoples who have immigrated to America. And the more we understand the various nationalities that have melted into this our great nation, the better shall we understand one another. We have taken upon ourselves, among other things, the task of presenting the various phases of Czechoslovak culture, the work of Americans of Czechoslovak ancestry,—all which, we humbly think, will prove of interest particularly to American students of Czechoslovak ancestry and the general American public at large.

In a letter addressed to the S. L. editor, Dr. Frank Thone, associate editor of the Science Service Monthly, made this interesting comment about our feature “Prominent Americans of Czechoslovak Ancestry”: “[[../../Number 1/Czechoslovak Men of Note|The article]] about Dr. Aleš Hrdlička is interesting and well written. I think you are doing a very good work in getting students posted regarding prominent men of their own racial group; it will set them on their mettle to make the most of their lives also.

“The men you propose to write-up form a really distinguished list; the Czechoslovak people in this country have reason to be proud of their representatives in science”.