What happens when a poor farmhand (Jeník) falls in love with a pretty girl (Marenka)? As expected, they decide to get married. What happens when the girl's cash-strapped parents try to interfere, with the help of a slick matchmaker (Kecal) and a bumbling but rich rival (Vašek)? They still get married anyway.
Yet while Bedrich Smetana's opera The Bartered Bride is as predictable as young love itself, the Czech composer places the age-old trope into a comic world full of patter, energy and the circus (just for good measure). And the Opera Boston's closing performance of the opera on May 5, 2009 certainly delivered a good time and great fun.
A Trip to Spillville, Iowa: Whimsy, Optimism, Youth and Nostalgia
True to the Opera Boston's mission of outreach and engagement, the opera was performed in English, rather than in the original Czech. Fortunately, they did not dispense with that rich and beautiful language all together, keeping a few phrases in place during some of the choruses.
Since everyone was now singing in English, the director Daniel Pelzig decided to set the opera in 1930s Spillville, Iowa. This Czech immigrant community of mid-America had welcomed Dvorák when he toured the New World gathering material for his symphony, and it seemed fitting that the opera of another Czech composer would feel at home there.
The scenery was whimsical (halfway between cartoon and lithograph), evoking feelings of nostalgia for youth and the past. The incorrigible optimism of two young people in love radiated through larger than life flower cut-outs which were raised and lowered throughout the performance.
The Singers: Jennifer Aylmer, Patrick Miller, Keith Jameson, James Maddelena
But this tastefully chosen setting was only the backdrop to the real star of the show: the singing. Smetana may have felt The Bartered Bride wasn't serious enough to deserve such enduring popularity, but there is something about hummable tunes and witty verse that makes for a memorable night at the opera.
From Jennifer Aylmer's sunny soprano as Marenka to Patrick Miller's silky tenor as Jeník, the evening was one pleasure after the next. In what might be opera's only stutter role, Keith Jameson garnered several laughs as the nervous and gullible Vašek. Finally, James Maddelena, as the slick yet by-the-book matchmaker Kecal, fired off patter verses a mile a minute. The only regret is that his two-octave range occasionally disappeared under the orchestra's volume.
And last but not least, where would any comic opera be without a strong chorus and a gaggle of colorful characters? From drinking songs to holiday revels to a "baseball polka" and a series of circus tricks and tumbles, the Opera Boston chorus and the dancers from the Boston Conservatory created a tapestry of aural and visual delights.
Sources
The Bartered Bride Program Notes.
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