The whole world as it was to Smetana collapsed. In it, he was a persecuted outlaw, periods of clearer awareness alternated with hallucinations, when crowds of beautiful women, to whom he kindly beckoned and directed to Prague so they could find a better time than with him, a sick old man. And the score for "Viola" (Violet) was bleeding the last life from him.
Exclamations of enthusiasm over his own work ended work on this frightful score, which was brutally torn from the darkness of madness. In April 1884 came the day when Smetana was still composing and he wrote on a page of his score: "Final page." Then his creative powers left him for good. After that, it wasn't possible for Smetana to get the treatment he needed at home. On the suggestion of his physician, on April 22 he was transferred to the Prague Institute for the Mentally Ill in Katerinky. What was actually transported there was really only an empty shell, which was set free by death on a sunny May 12, at 4:30 in the afternoon.
The celebrated funeral began in Old Town Square, leading from the Church of Our Lady of Tyn, on May 15. It turned into a national occaision of mourning, with large crowds lining the path of the procession to say their farewells to the dead master. At the National Theater, fanfares greeted Smetana for the last time, then the procession headed for Vysehrad, where Smetana's body was laid to rest. On that day, Prodana nevesta (The Bartered Bride), the merriest of Smetana's works, was performed at the National Theater in tribute to the great composer...
Ina letter to the Czech nation, Franz Liszt wrote: "In haste I write to you, that Smetana's death has touched me deeply. He was truly a genius..."
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