The Bartered Brides

Product Information

White, Michael (13 December 1998). "The bride wore an outfit from Habitat". The Independent on Sunday . Retrieved 26 May 2020. Lesueur, François (22 October 2008). "Enfin par la grande porte: La Fiancée vendue". ForumOpera.com . Retrieved 30 November 2015. (in French) The circus perfomer Esmerelda (Amanda Squitieri) entertains villagers in the Paris Opera production of The Bartered Bride. 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. The book has a lot of feelings. As such there is way too much trivial dialogue between maids, housekeepers, cooks, Nan and Sarah, their pet birds, and everyone else. It actually drags the book along. Once in a while someone has an idea that leads to action (and a dead end). The heroes and heroines complain incessantly about not being able to do anything. It is group think at its worst. Then, all of a sudden, the story ends.

I was over the moon to discover that it was another Nan and Sarah book, along with their trusty bird friends, Grey and Neville. The action and dialogue flow freely, mingling with beautiful descriptions of European countryside and just a hint of romance…. A well-developed heroine and engaging story.”— Publishers Weekly All this sends Marenka on a roller-coaster emotional journey, and Pumeza Matshikiza plays her with an endearing attitude while singing with gorgeously rich tone, even if her voice is not entirely under control. Oliver Johnston brings an idiomatically plangent tenor to the cunning Jenik. The stammering Vasek can be problematic today, with the humour drawn from his speech impediment, but here he is sympathetically portrayed as simply the product of too much mollycoddling by the excellent tenor John Findon. There are five Elements — Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit, which can interact with all the Elementals as well as human spirits. There are two levels of mastery: magician or Master. Each Element is capable of being used for good or ill. Sylphs are the smallest and most delicate of Air Elementals. Jenny Greenteeth is a nasty Water Elemental who prefers to dwell in polluted waters and preys on children. 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.Conductor Jac van Steen was in charge from the opening ‘vivacissimo’ of the overture. The dynamics and rhythmic intensity of Smetana’s fugal stand-alone concert piece are extreme and the Philharmonia Orchestra rose to the challenge. Van Steen has worked in Prague and knows the opera very well having conducted the last Garsington production. He kept the tempos brisk with an authentic Czech folk lilt when appropriate. The Garsington Opera Chorus was in thrilling voice and provided much of the gentle humour of the piece ‘a woman’s work is never done but men can escape to the pub’ with choreographer Darren Royston’s dance steps adding to the general sense of bonhomie. The chorus twisting and jiving to Smetana’s waltz was an unexpected pleasure.

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. 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. Nan and Sarah are also right. It would be too much like a bad farce for there to be both a gang of Moriarty’s henchmen out committing evil AND a gang of necromancer’s assistants out doing evil at the same time – even in a city as big as London.

Reviews

Holden, Amanda; Kenyon, Nicholas; Walsh, Stephen, eds. (1993). The Viking Opera Guide. London: Viking. p. 989. ISBN 0-670-81292-7. The scene change between Act I’s church hall and Act II’s pub is also notable because, with the cast being heavily involved in it, it is hard to know where performers end and stage hands begin. It includes some men continuing to dance around the maypole as a way of wrapping the ribbons tight before carrying it off, and it really looks as if workmen are taking up the lino in the kitchen. The pub paints a picture of 1950s English village life as people play darts, and patrons head to and emerge from the ‘ladies’ and ‘gents’ throughout the scene. When Vašek sings ‘Ma… ma… ma… matička’ everyone moves to the other side of the room within seconds, and it is noticeable how the women tend to stay in groups, which is realistic since many may not have ventured into a pub alone in the ’50s. I suppose that in everything I write I try to expound the creed I gave my character Diana Tregarde in Burning Water:

By the grace of God and with His help, I shall one day be a Liszt in technique and a Mozart in composition.”The Bartered Bride premiered at the Provisional Theatre in Prague in 1866 in a two-act version with spoken dialogue. So far, changes to the original had been of a minor nature, but when the opera reappeared in June 1869 it had been entirely restructured. Although the musical numbers were still linked by dialogue, the first act had been divided in two, to create a three-act opera. [18] Various numbers, including the drinking song and the new polka, were repositioned, and the polka was now followed by a furiant. A "March of the Comedians" was added, to introduce the strolling players in what was now act 3. A short duet for Esmeralda and the Principal Comedian was dropped. [18] [19] In September 1870 The Bartered Bride reached its final form, when all the dialogue was replaced by recitative. [18] Smetana's own opinion of the finished work, given much later, was largely dismissive: he described it as "a toy ... composing it was mere child's play". It was written, he said "to spite those who accused me of being Wagnerian and incapable of doing anything in a lighter vein." [20] Later performances [ edit ] The Metropolitan Opera House, New York, around the time of The Bartered Bride's New York premiere under Gustav Mahler in 1909 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 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 ] The opera was performed more than one hundred times during Smetana's lifetime (the first Czech opera to reach this landmark), [28] subsequently becoming a permanent feature of the National Theatre's repertory. On 9 May 1945 a special performance in memory of the victims of World War II was given at the theatre, four days after the last significant fighting in Europe. [29]

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.Vašek expresses his confusions in a short, sad song ("I can't get it out of my head"), but is interrupted by the arrival of a travelling circus. The Ringmaster introduces the star attractions: Esmeralda, the Spanish dancer, a "real Indian" sword swallower, and a dancing bear. A rapid folk-dance, the skočná, follows. Vašek is entranced by Esmeralda, but his timid advances are interrupted when the "Indian" rushes in, announcing that the "bear" has collapsed in a drunken stupor. A replacement is required. Vašek is soon persuaded to take the job, egged on by Esmeralda's flattering words ("We'll make a pretty thing out of you"). While John and Mary shine here, Nan and Sarah- the theoretical heroines of the series- fade a bit. Unless they are using their particular talents (Nan as a mind reader, Sarah a medium) the two girls are pretty interchangeable in Brides. They think the same way, act the same way, plot the same way, and half of the time I could only remember who was who because of the birds. As brave and dedicated as all the heroes were, Brides pretty much stars the necromancer Spencer. Our heroes chase leads and dead ends while Spencer gets all the action. The reader is horrified by what Spencer is doing, and cheers his (eventual) failure, but he is still the stand out in the book. I spent most of the book waiting for something to happen. Which was also what our heroes were doing for most of the book. With what seemed to me a rather uncharacteristically hurried ending, I didn't feel like I got quite the payoff I was hoping for. Mary O'Brien's parents, Ned and Meggie, sell her to Gerald "Jerry" Baker, who is moving to Canada. Her older sister, Sally, had also married a man who going to Australia. Peg had been in service but became pregnant by the master. Xi'er is an ugly Chinese woman carefully prepped by Shen Li. Canadian-born Mel Cooper first came to the UK to study English Literature at Oxford University and stayed. He was captivated by the culture and history of Britain, which he found to be a welcoming and tolerant country. After working in highly illustrated, non-fiction publishing for over a decade, he founded and edited the magazine Opera Now. Since then he has worked as a consultant to the Japanese broadcaster NHK, a broadcaster on British Satellite Broadcasting, a maker of audio shows and arts critic for several airlines, and as one of the team that started Britain’s first commercial classical music radio station, Classic FM, on which he was both a classical music DJ and creator and presenter of shows like Classic America and Authentic Mařenka – Pumeza Matshikiza, Jeník – Oliver Johnston, Kecal – David Ireland, Vašek – John Findon, Ludmila – Yvonne Howard, Krušina – William Dazeley, Ringmaster – Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, Esmeralda – Isabelle Peters, Mícha – John Savournin, Háta – Louise Winter; Original Director – Paul Curran, Revival Director – Rosie Purdie, Conductor – Jac van Steen, Designer – Kevin Knight, Lighting Designer – Howard Hudson, Choreographer – Darren Royston, Philharmonia Orchestra, Garsington Opera Chorus & Circus Troupe (led by Jennifer Robinson)