Artiste: Jiří Nekvasil

Superb singing and brilliant work in the pit can't quite rescue Jiří Nekvasil's overambitious production.

Glorious music and excellent singing can't mask a simplistic staging of Smetana's last opera, an uneasy combination of rom-com and medieval legend. 

Donatienne Michel-Dansac is great in the lead at the Ostrava Days new music festival, leering, boasting and swaggering convincingly as the former US President.