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.