There is a general acceptance of Vašek’s immaturity when he turns up as a dancing bear and Jeník makes up with his father and is able to marry his beloved. As often happens with opera it’s not the greatest of stories, but the music and this production are of such high quality that it doesn’t really matter. After a performance at the Vienna Music and Theatre Exhibition of 1892, the opera achieved international recognition. It was performed in Chicago in 1893, London in 1895 and reached New York in 1909, subsequently becoming the first, and for many years the only, Czech opera in the general repertory. Many of these early international performances were in German, under the title Die verkaufte Braut, and the German-language version continues to be played and recorded. A German film of the opera was made in 1932 by Max Ophüls. Jeník consoles the sad Mařenka, who is supposed to marry Vašek, the son of the rich landowner Mícha, against her will. Jeník vows fidelity to her, but does not tell her that he is Mícha's son from his first marriage and that he went away because of his evil stepmother Agnes years ago. Defiantly Mařenka vows before her parents and the marriage broker Kecal, who has brought about the liaison, that she will not accept anybody as her husband except Jeník. The Bartered Bride premiered at the Provisional Theatre in Prague in 1866 in a two-act version with spoken dialogue. Paul Curran’s 2019 The Bartered Bride, set in late 1950s Britain, makes a welcome return to the Wormsley Estate in Rosie Purdie’s likeable revival. With a new cast, this folksy happy-ever-after rom-com continues to enchant and amuse. Aside from the opera’s attractive music, the universal appeal of the work (premiered in 1866 and first heard in Britain in 1895) depends on local character and small incident rather than on any broadly dramatic element which, with the best will in the world, is fairly minimal – boy loves girl whose parents have arranged for her to marry another, yet all comes right in the end. This production is enlivened more by the colourful and diverting characterisations from within the chorus of villagers (almost a template for Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring) than the principal singers who, good as they are, bring uneven performances with few moments that either startle the ear or moisten the eye.

Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He has been regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. Internationally he is best known for his opera The Bartered Bride and for the symphonic cycle Má vlast ("My Homeland"), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native Bohemia. It contains the famous symphonic poem "Vltava", also popularly known by its German name "Die Moldau" (in English, "The Moldau"). By the end of 1874, Smetana had become completely deaf but, freed from his theatre duties and the related controversies, he began a period of sustained composition that continued for almost the rest of his life. His contributions to Czech music were increasingly recognised and honoured, but a mental collapse early in 1884 led to his incarceration in an asylum and subsequent death. Smetana's reputation as the founding father of Czech music has endured in his native country, where advocates have raised his status above that of his contemporaries and successors. However, relatively few of Smetana's works are in the international repertory, and most foreign commentators tend to regard Antonín Dvořák as a more significant Czech composer.Still, both Dvorak and Janacek owe a clear debt to Bedrich Smetana, whose efforts may have done more than any other to establish Czech music both at home and abroad. Director Rosie Purdie has retained the bustling level of stage business from the original production. There is a Reverend Richard Coles lookalike vicar conducting the overture with the sound emanating from a retro record player, a district nurse running a bucolic dance class and women in period costume fussing over cake icing. There is a glorious maypole dance and the dynamism of the circus troupe corralled by tenor Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts as a Leigh Bowery-esque Ringmaster brought energy and momentum to the production. The Bartered Bride (Czech: Prodaná nevěsta, The Sold Bride) is a comic opera in three acts by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, to a libretto by Karel Sabina. The work is generally regarded as a major contribution towards the development of Czech music. It was composed during the period 1863 to 1866, and first performed at the Provisional Theatre, Prague, on 30 May 1866 in a two-act format with spoken dialogue. Set in a country village and with realistic characters, it tells the story of how, after a late surprise revelation, true love prevails over the combined efforts of ambitious parents and a scheming marriage broker. The opera was not immediately successful, and was revised and extended in the following four years. In its final version, premiered in 1870, it rapidly gained popularity and eventually became a worldwide success. Until this time, the Czech national opera had only been represented by minor, rarely performed works. This opera, Smetana's second, was part of his quest to create a truly Czech operatic genre. Smetana's musical treatment made considerable use of traditional Bohemian dance forms, such as the polka and furiant, and, although he largely avoided the direct quotation of folksong, he nevertheless created music considered by Czechs to be quintessentially Czech in spirit. The overture, often played as a concert piece independently from the opera, was, unusually, composed before almost any of the other music had been written. In America, Aaron Copland wrote music like that. The brash, wide open sound of works like "Appalachian Spring" and "Billy the Kid" seems to flow in the blood of American listeners, yet his music has also earned a place in concert halls around the world. From England, the music of Edward Elgar has crossed continents and oceans, but retains an ineffably British nature that has given him a truly special place among his countrymen.

The Czech music specialist John Tyrrell has observed that, despite the casual way in which The Bartered Bride's libretto was put together, it has an intrinsic "Czechness", being one of the few in Czech written in trochees (a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one), matching the natural first-syllable emphasis in Czech. [10] Composition [ edit ] Smetana's friend Josef Srb-Debrnov, who was unable to attend the performance himself, canvassed opinion from members of the audience as they emerged. "One praised it, another shook his head, and one well-known musician ... said to me: 'That's no comic opera; it won't do. The opening chorus is fine but I don't care for the rest.'" [9] Josef Krejčí, a member of the panel that had judged Harrach's opera competition, called the work a failure "that would never hold its own." [17] Meanwhile, Kecal is attempting to buy Jeník off, and after some verbal fencing makes a straight cash offer: a hundred florins if Jeník will renounce Mařenka. Not enough, is the reply. When Kecal increases the offer to 300florins, Jeník pretends to accept, but imposes a condition – no one but Mícha's son will be allowed to wed Mařenka. Kecal agrees, and rushes off to prepare the contract. Alone, Jeník ponders the deal he has apparently made to barter his beloved ("When you discover whom you've bought"), wondering how anyone could believe that he would really do this, and finally expressing his love for Mařenka. Although in The Bartered Bride Smetana largely avoided the direct quotation of folksong, the music he composed was considered to be Czech in spirit, meaning that he succeeded in his aim of creating a truly Czech operatic genre. It might therefore seem strange to transfer the action to a 1950s English village, but Paul Curran’s 2019 production for Garsington Opera, now revived by Rosie Purdie, works well for several reasons. In the same way as the original created an image of how the Czech people wished to see themselves, so the first decade of the reign of Elizabeth II, whose image we see hanging in the local pub, conjures ideas for many of the perfect England. The final opening night of this summer’s Garsington opera season certainly whets the appetite for more Smetana. But given that Paul Curran’s 2019 production (revived here by Rosie Purdie) transposes the action from 19th-century to 1960s Britain, with Elvis fans doing the twist in place of the polka, it’s odd to find an entirely non-Czech cast parroting the original Czech rather than presenting the comedy in an English translation. With misplaced snobbery, “an exotic and irrational entertainment” is evidently still how the Brits like opera best.This was the composer’s second opera with its premiere taking place in Prague, on 30 May 1866. For Smetana, its composition was a deliberate attempt to create a distinct Czech musical language through his use of folk-dance elements, but his gorgeous melodies and striking choral writing also come through strongly; he is using nationalism as a conduit for a celebration of culture rather than as an exclusive display of superiority. The contrast with other nationalist cultures is striking with the emphasis being on the primacy of love with a distinct message of anti-materiality. The opera has become central to the nation’s sense of identity although it didn’t become a fixture in the international opera repertoire until after the composer’s death. Listed at 8:00PM on ABV Channel 2 at Google News Archive, a clip also appears on YouTube with poor sound quality Synopsis [ edit ] Act 1 [ edit ] Open-air performance at the Zoppot Waldoper, near Danzig, July 1912 Jac van Steen, in the pit, seems to have this music in his veins. The orchestral sound has a sort of rustic vigour, but infected with the precision one expects of the Philharmonia orchestra. The ensemble slips were due, I think, to the complexity of the chorus movement. But the choral singing itself is crisp and invigorating. One longs to join in. But I don’t think Smetana would be pleased.

The English wordings are taken from Large 1970, Appendix C: "The Genesis of The Bartered Bride", pp.399–408 The Bartered Bride 20 June 2008". Národní divlado (National Theatre, Prague). June 2008. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011 . Retrieved 21 June 2009. Smetana did not act immediately on this aspiration. The announcement that a Provisional Theatre was to be opened in Prague, as a home for Czech opera and drama pending the building of a permanent National Theatre, influenced his decision to return permanently to his homeland in 1861. [5] He was then spurred to creative action by the announcement of a prize competition, sponsored by the Czech patriot Jan von Harrach, to provide suitable operas for the Provisional Theatre. By 1863 he had written The Brandenburgers in Bohemia to a libretto by the Czech nationalist poet Karel Sabina, whom Smetana had met briefly in 1848. [5] [6] The Brandenburgers, which was awarded the opera prize, was a serious historical drama, but even before its completion Smetana was noting down themes for use in a future comic opera. By this time he had heard the music of Cornelius's Der Barbier, and was ready to try his own hand at the comic genre. [7] Composition history [ edit ] Libretto [ edit ] Kecal, who fears for his share of the dowry, tries to persuade Jeník to abandon Mařenka. Jeník agrees against an indemnity of 300 guldens and under the condition that Mařenka may only marry the son of the peasant Mícha. Kecal, who is not aware that Mícha has got another son, accepts. When Mařenka is informed of the deal, Jeník no longer exists for her. At last he tells her about his identity and the game he played with Kecal, but she only believes him when Mícha, too, recognizes Jeník to be his son and embraces him.With the exception of Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, and it is hard to picture anyone portraying the Ringmaster in this production so well, all of the principals are different to 2019, but undoubtedly superb. As Mařenka, Pumeza Matshikiza reveals a full yet nuanced soprano that possesses a great flexibility so that all of the required sounds are shaped extremely well. Oliver Johnston, with his strong and vibrant tenor, captures Jeník’s determination to succeed and wry humour in equal measure, while the chemistry between the pair manifests itself from very early on as they even reveal it through the simple act of making sandwiches together. The Bartered Bride is ultimately a comedy, and this production makes the scene in which Mařenka refuses to listen to Jeník’s explanation particularly amusing, but what comes across most clearly is the extent of her grief because she genuinely believes that the man who loves her has sold out. In strongly-focused voice, David Ireland presents Kecal as a consummate salesman and a bit of a wide boy. There’s a lively quartet of parents (William Dazeley, Yvonne Howard, John Savournin and Louise Winter) and a tireless circus troupe. Only in Smetana can you go to an opera and enjoy the circus. Like nearly all great comic operas, The Bartered Bride is really not very funny. Curran’s production recognises the dark side of a work about outsiders and people who do not fit, and captures its cynicism. Marenka’s parents are persuaded by the marriage broker Kecal that she should wed the son of Tobias Micha, but the plot hinges on the fact that he has two sons, one disappeared and presumed dead. Nichols, Roger (2002). The Harlequin Years: Music in Paris, 1917-1929. Berkeley, Ca.: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23736-6.