Smetana: The Bartered Bride

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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. 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. The English wordings are taken from Large 1970, Appendix C: "The Genesis of The Bartered Bride", pp.399–408 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 ] The men of the village join in a rousing drinking song ("To beer!"), while Jeník and Kecal argue the merits, respectively, of love and money over beer. The women enter, and the whole group joins in dancing a furiant. Away from the jollity the nervous Vašek muses over his forthcoming marriage in a stuttering song ("My-my-my mother said to me"). Mařenka appears, and guesses immediately who he is, but does not reveal her own identity. Pretending to be someone else, she paints a picture of "Mařenka" as a treacherous deceiver. Vašek is easily fooled, and when Mařenka, in her false guise, pretends to woo him ("I know of a maiden fair"), he falls for her charms and swears to give Mařenka up.

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. 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 circus perfomer Esmerelda (Amanda Squitieri) entertains villagers in the Paris Opera production of The Bartered Bride. The mood of the entire opera is set by the overture, a concert piece in its own right, which Tyrrell describes as "a tour de force of the genre, wonderfully spirited & wonderfully crafted." Tyrrell draws attention to several of its striking features – its extended string fugato, climactic tutti and prominent syncopations. [10] The overture does not contain many of the opera's later themes: biographer Brian Large compares it to Mozart's overtures to The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute, in establishing a general mood. [40] It is followed immediately by an extended orchestral prelude, for which Smetana adapted part of his 1849 piano work Wedding Scenes, adding special effects such as bagpipe imitations. [10] [41] The energy and dynamism cannot be faulted, as every chorus member is handed a unique character that they maintain throughout the evening. Kevin Knight’s sets ensure that when it is their turn to take centre stage the results are overwhelmingly joyous, but when their presence is to add context they do not excessively distract from the central action. Act I sees the church hall comprise a main area, with a largely cut away proscenium stage at one end, and a small kitchen, separated by a door, at the other. This enables Mařenka’s lengthy Act I scene with Jeník to take place in the latter more intimate space, while workmen tinker with spotlights in the main hall. All of the chorus members are involved in the dancing, and the Polka that ends Act I becomes a maypole routine that is as impressive for its design as its obvious exuberance. There are also some beautiful touches as an upset Mařenka leaves the dance, and everyone rushes towards her for spoiling it before realising they have unbalanced the maypole and it is on the verge of collapse.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. It’s always a pleasure to zip along the M40 for 45 minutes from West London to the Getty family’s stunning Wormsley Estate in the Chiltern Hills. The home of Garsington Opera, the summer opera festival was founded in 1989 by Leonard and Rosalind Ingrams at Garsington Manor, near Oxford, moving to the Wormsley Estate in 2011 after Leonard’s death. I’m reviewing Czech composer Bedrich Smetana’s three-act comic opera The Bartered Bride, the final opera of four in Garsington’s 2023 season, with director Rosie Purdie staging a revival of the 2019 production by Paul Curran, an early 1960s English village hall Bartered Bride that transplanted this rural Bohemian idyll to the more familiar world of the Woman’s Institute. Garsington is a truly glorious space to enjoy opera and offers a platform for emerging stars to develop, with well-rehearsed, world-class productions being delivered in what feels like a relatively intimate space. If you can, you should experience it! Holden, Amanda; Kenyon, Nicholas; Walsh, Stephen, eds. (1993). The Viking Opera Guide. London: Viking. p. 989. ISBN 0-670-81292-7. Brandow, Adam (April 2005). "Czech Spirit Enlivens J.O.C.'s Bartered Bride". The Juilliard Journal Online. New York: Juilliard School. XX (7). Archived from the original on 21 November 2008 . Retrieved 21 June 2009.

By October 1862, well before the arrival of any libretto or plot sketch, Smetana had noted down 16bars which later became the theme of The Bartered Bride's opening chorus. In May 1863 he sketched eight bars which he eventually used in the love duet "Faithful love can't be marred", and later that summer, while still awaiting Sabina's revised libretto, he wrote the theme of the comic number "We'll make a pretty little thing". [4] He also produced a piano version of the entire overture, which was performed in a public concert on 18 November. In this, he departed from his normal practice of leaving the overture until last. [8] 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. In February 1869 Smetana had the text translated into French, and sent the libretto and score to the Paris Opera with a business proposal for dividing the profits. The management of the Paris Opera did not respond. [21] The opera was first performed outside its native land on 11 January 1871, when Eduard Nápravník, conductor of the Russian Imperial Opera, gave a performance at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. The work attracted mediocre notices from the critics, one of whom compared the work unfavourably to the Offenbach genre. Smetana was hurt by this remark, which he felt downgraded his opera to operetta status, [22] and was convinced that press hostility had been generated by a former adversary, the Russian composer Mily Balakirev. The pair had clashed some years earlier, over the Provisional Theatre's stagings of Glinka's A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Lyudmila. Smetana believed that Balakirev had used the Russian premiere of The Bartered Bride as a means of exacting revenge. [23] 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.

Prodaná Nevěsta; 팔려간 신부; Проданная невеста; La Fiancée vendue; La novia vendida; Satılmış Nişanlı; La núvia venuda; Myyty morsian; La sposa venduta; Prodaná nevěsta; Die verkaufte Braut; 売られた花嫁; Prodana nevesta; Продадена невеста; Brudköpet; Den solgte brud; Cô dâu bị bán đi; Prodana nevjesta; Վաճառված հարսնացուն; Sprzedana narzeczona; La Promesa venduda; הכלה המכורה; Az eladott menyasszony; Продана наречена; Η ανταλλαγμένη νύφη Putting aside exactly who the marriage broker Kecal is in this new scenario, the updating works neatly in Kevin Knight’s designs and the hardworking choreographer Darren Royston’s movement. As the village hall fills up at the start, we see a prissy vicar air-conducting an LP of the overture, one of the most exhilarating in the whole repertoire. The real conductor Jac van Steen may be no Rafael Kubelik, and textures could be more airy, but he draws strong playing from the Philharmonia. Robinson, Lisa B. (November 2011). "Met-Juilliard Bride Bows". The Juilliard Journal Online. New York: Juilliard School . Retrieved 30 November 2015. 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. The Bartered Bride premiered at the Provisional Theatre in Prague in 1866 in a two-act version with spoken dialogue.

White, Michael (13 December 1998). "The bride wore an outfit from Habitat". The Independent on Sunday . Retrieved 26 May 2020. 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. Two sets of parents bring slender characterisations: William Dazeley is a defeated-looking Krušina and husband to Yvonne Howard’s more assertive Ludmila, while John Savournin makes for an anonymous Mícha, but is nicely contrasted by Louise Winter’s feisty Háta. Their combined presence in Act 3 is not dramatically enhanced with the arrival of Kecal for their ensemble number where they simply stand motionless and face the audience without any internal interaction. More rewarding is the partnership found in Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts’ circus Ringmaster and Lara Marie Müller’s sweet-toned Esmeralda, their duet presented with aplomb. A word too for the circus troupe whose dextrous acrobatics and juggling lifts the mood in spectacular fashion. In the years since its American premiere The Bartered Bride has entered the repertory of all major opera companies, and is regularly revived worldwide. After several unsuccessful attempts to stage it in France, it was premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1928, sung in French as La Fiancée vendue. [30] [31] In 2008 the opera was added to the repertoire of the Paris Opera, in a new production staged at the Palais Garnier. [32]

Press comment was less critical; nevertheless, after one more performance the opera was withdrawn. Shortly afterwards the Provisional Theatre temporarily closed its doors, as the threat of war drew closer to Prague. [17] Restructure [ edit ]

Prodaná nevěsta". Toulky operou. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016 . Retrieved 28 March 2012. (in Czech) Schonberg, Harold C. (1975). The Lives of the Great Composers, Vol. II. London: Futura Publications. ISBN 978-0-86007-723-7.The opera continued to be composed in a piecemeal fashion, as Sabina's libretto gradually took shape. Progress was slow, and was interrupted by other work. Smetana had become Chorus Master of the Hlahol Choral Society in 1862, and spent much time rehearsing and performing with the Society. [11] He was deeply involved in the 1864 Shakespeare Festival in Prague, conducting Berlioz's Romeo et Juliette and composing a festival march. [12] That same year he became music correspondent of the Czech-language newspaper Národní listy. Smetana's diary for December 1864 records that he was continuing to work on The Bartered Bride; the piano score was completed by October 1865. It was then put aside so that the composer could concentrate on his third opera Dalibor. [13] Smetana evidently did not begin the orchestral scoring of The Bartered Bride until, following the successful performance of The Brandenburgers in January 1866, the management of the Provisional Theatre decided to stage the new opera during the following summer. The scoring was completed rapidly, between 20 February and 16 March. [13] Roles [ edit ] Roles, voice types, premiere cast Role 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. Marès, Antoine (2006). "La Fiancée mal vendue". In Horel, Catherine; Michel, Bernard (eds.). Nations, cultures et sociétés d'Europe centrale aux XIXe et XXe siècles (in French). Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne. ISBN 2-85944-550-1. Listed at 8:00PM on ABV Channel 2 at Google News Archive, a clip also appears on YouTube with poor sound quality Smetana began revising The Bartered Bride as soon as its first performances were complete. [9] For its first revival, in October 1866, the only significant musical alteration was the addition of a gypsy dance near the start of act 2. For this, Smetana used the music of a dance from The Brandenburgers of Bohemia. [18] When The Bartered Bride returned to the Provisional Theatre in January 1869, this dance was removed, and replaced with a polka. A new scene, with a drinking song for the chorus, was added to act 1, and Mařenka's act 2 aria "Oh what grief!" was extended. [18]