Composer Bedrich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride is a comic masterpiece of drama and operatic grandeur set in the humble countryside of rustic Czechoslovakia. The classic tale of a proposed arranged marriage in straits, the production this weekend in Hall Auditorium features Czech-flavored music, a 19th century soap opera script and a traveling circus.
The story begins in a small village square around 1850, the hubbub of the opera’s social activity. Villagers and farmers alike are gathered to celebrate the coming of spring, dancing to a merry tune played by the Oberlin Opera Pit Orchestra. The only character not in a festive spirit is Marenka, who has just learned that her father has decided to wed her to Vasek, the ridiculously shy and socially inept son of a wealthy landowner. When her true love, Jenik comes to comfort her, Marenka tells him of her plight, and they embrace in pledge of undying compassion.
Meanwhile, Kecal, the town’s marriage planner, tells Marenka’s father that the choice of a husband is not his daughter’s, but his, and they quickly finalize the marriage papers. Marenka arrives on the scene, proclaiming her love for Jenik, crumpling the marriage pact onto a ball on the ground. Before any more tempers can flare, the town mob bursts back onto the scene and ends Act I with a rounds of singing and polkaing.
While music pervades throughout virtually all three hours of this opera, the most famous selection is the overture, played before the opening of the first act. A highly energized dance theme, played alternately by the different string sections, leads into triumphant interludes, spelling out many of the melodies to come. Variating from earlier operas by such composers as Mozart and Rossini, Smetana blurs the line between recitatives and arias—that is, between when characters sing on one repeated note to when they sing many notes and melodies. This frequently gives the music a background mood-setting quality, as opposed to a dominant feature over the text. It is, in fact, the dance numbers, not the arias, that boast the memorable themes of this opera.
Act II begins in a tavern with the aria “Nothing More Refreshing and Colder Than Beer,” a not-so-subtle indicator of the heightened and unrefined wit that pervades the libretto from here on out. We get our first glimpse of the over strung Vasek in a stammering aria, searching for his new fiancé who he has never met. Marenka, in fact, does arrive on the scene, but upon seeing Vasek, decides to hide her identity. Telling Vasek to swear to never marry Marenka, she reasons: “She’ll deceive you, she’ll beat you and in the end she’ll kill you.” Vasek crumples in fright, but refuses to swear because it is bad thing to do. They depart and Jenik and Kecal arrive onstage haggling over a deal in which Jenik would forgo his claim to Marenka. After a long discussion, they come to terms, and the act concludes as Jenik signs a paper bartering Marenka for a wealthy bride to-be-announced and a cash sum. The villagers surround him repeating “For Shame, For Shame” as the curtain falls.
The acting in this production was reasonably good, and the majority of the time the singing was superb. A difficult work in which the coordination between singers and orchestra never really ends, the weakest parts were the least noticeable, such as accompaniment doublings and incidental music to onstage action or transitions between voices in recitatives. The only obvious wrinkles occurred when one of the singers or the orchestra would be a little behind the others in the duo and trio arias when each voice was often singing different texts for comic effect.
The acting became noticeably more fluid as the opera progressed and the script became more realistic and easier to interpret. All told, the opera as a whole was much more intriguing after Act I, in which much of the background is doled out in awkward recitatives and musically unimaginative arias that would be hard to act in any situation.
The finale, Act III, like all traditional opera scripts, brings everybody together in harmony just when it seems all is hopeless. A circus comes to town, and the jugglers, gymnasts and even the while dog led onstage perform admirably in their roles. A lull in the middle of this act is easily redeemed by a spellbinding a cappella aria in which Marenka’s parents and the marriage broker try to convince Marenka one last time to marry Vasek.
The Bartered Bride is a fun, if unspectacular opera, in which entertainment is plenty and the thematic burden light. The opening night crowd came away satisfied and happy, if not brooding and blown away like after a profound performance. Conductor Steven Smith and director Jonathan Field both received hearty rounds of applause. The Bartered Bride may not be ready to make a lasting impression, but it will get the last laugh.

Hall Auditorium. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 15 and 16 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. $5 OCID, $8 faculty, staff, alumni and senior citizens, $12 public.