BaL 27.05.23 - Smetana: The Bartered Bride

[makropulos]

Thanks Makropulos, for clarifying the current availabilities of the Ancerl performance. I well understand your decision, in not wanting to over-freight BaL with those "historical" Czech recordings. The problem is, that their marvellous quality has worked against the need to create new Bartered Brides on record since!

It certainly has –and the other casualties included two interesting German-language versions: the first is a live one from Vienna with Irmgard Seefried and Klobučar (Orfeo), and the second an East German recording conducted by Othmar Suitner (on Berlin Classics) made at exactly the same time as Kempe's wonderful Bamberg set. I've a couple of others too, but enjoyable as they are, they didn't disturb the front runners. Still, it's always good to discuss a work where so many of the recordings are worthwhile.

[Master Jacques]

Never seen any of the others sadly .I am a great admirer of his music and think his G minor Piano Trio one of the finest examples of a notoriously tricky genre - an absolute masterpiece.

If you should get the chance, do give another listen to The Kiss (preferably with a libretto). A sort of "adult" Bartered Bride with a flawless score, superlative libretto and - to my mind - one of the very greatest comedies in music. As for seeing it ... well, it's been a while since any of our opera companies did it. But the old 1950s recording under Chalabala with Kalas, Blachut, Cervinkova et al. is beyond price.

[Master Jacques]

It certainly has –and the other casualties included two interesting German-language versions: the first is a live one from Vienna with Irmgard Seefried and Klobučar (Orfeo), and the second an East German recording conducted by Othmar Suitner (on Berlin Classics) made at exactly the same time as Kempe's wonderful Bamberg set. I've a couple of others too, but enjoyable as they are, they didn't disturb the front runners. Still, it's always good to discuss a work where so many of the recordings are worthwhile.

Worthwhile indeed! I haven't heard the Seefried/Klobučar recording on Orfeo and will run that to earth, thank you.

[makropulos]

And just think - this wonderful piece is nowhere near being Smetana's best opera!

I was delighted that we were able to get any Smetana opera on to BAL –and it was a good candidate as there are so many versions. Of the ones I've seen as well as heard, the two which really stand our are Dalibor and Libuše –both tremendous masterpieces in their different ways. I remember seeing the ENO Dalibor in the 1970s (Anne Evans, John Mitchinson, Charles Mackerras) and have a very nice off-air recording of the broadcast of that production (courtesy of the late-lamented Oriel Music). That really woke me up to the idea that there was fabulous operatic Smetana to be found beyond The BB. Libuše is simply marvellous but isn't likely to travel very often beyond Czech lands. I've never seen The Secret which I only know through recordings and a score, but it strikes me as a beautiful piece. I know Vilém Tauský conducted it with Park Lane Opera in 1972, but I was at school at the time and couldn't get to it –I do remember hearing the broadcast at the time.

[Ein Heldenleben]

If you should get the chance, do give another listen to The Kiss (preferably with a libretto). A sort of "adult" Bartered Bride with a flawless score, superlative libretto and - to my mind - one of the very greatest comedies in music. As for seeing it ... well, it's been a while since any of our opera companies did it. But the old 1950s recording under Chalabala with Kalas, Blachut, Cervinkova et al. is beyond price.

Not sure I’ve even heard it - I think it might have been a R3Thursday afternoon opera once. Strikes me it’s the sort of thing that might turn up on Operavison no doubt updated to 1968 and with guest T34 tank appearance.

[Bryn]

It's curious that Presto doesn't list this. It is readily (and instantly) available as a download (MP3 or FLAC) from this link on Supraphon's own website, for a total outlay of less than £10. This should take you straight to it:

https://www.supraphonline.cz/album/969-smetana-prodana-nevesta-opera-o-3-dejstvich-komplet?trackId=13681

However, I don't think the CD edition of that performance is available at the moment.

It looks like the download from the Supraphon site comes with pdfs, unlike the QOBUZ offering.

[Master Jacques]

I was delighted that we were able to get any Smetana opera on to BAL –and it was a good candidate as there are so many versions. Of the ones I've seen as well as heard, the two which really stand our are Dalibor and Libuše –both tremendous masterpieces in their different ways. I remember seeing the ENO Dalibor in the 1970s (Anne Evans, John Mitchinson, Charles Mackerras) and have a very nice off-air recording of the broadcast of that production (courtesy of the late-lamented Oriel Music). That really woke me up to the idea that there was fabulous operatic Smetana to be found beyond The BB. Libuše is simply marvellous but isn't likely to travel very often beyond Czech lands. I've never seen The Secret which I only know through recordings and a score, but it strikes me as a beautiful piece. I know Vilém Tauský conducted it with Park Lane Opera in 1972, but I was at school at the time and couldn't get to it –I do remember hearing the broadcast at the time.

Yes indeed - well done you, for convincing BaL to cover the opera. As you say, it's the only Smetana opera (with the possible exception of Dalibor) where there are enough versions to make a proper contest out of it. For Dalibor, Jiří Bělohlávek's recording on Onyx would this time be a genuine contender, I think (though once again, for me the 1950 Krombholc recording with Blachut and Podvalová would probably carry the palm).

I couldn't agree with you more about the stature of Dalibor and Libuše, which I was privileged to hear in Usher Hall concert at the 1998 Edinburgh Festival, with Eva Urbanová, Ivan Kusnjer and excellent all-Czech support under Oliver Dohnanyi (one of my most memorable nights at a Festival opera). I have never seen The Secret either, and like you consider it a very beautiful and poetic comedy, if not quite at the level of The Kiss. I remember hearing laudatory reports from old timers about the 1956 Oxford University Opera Club production, which introduced a very young singer, making her operatic debut in the central role of Roza - her name was Janet Baker!

[Master Jacques]

Not sure I’ve even heard it - I think it might have been a R3Thursday afternoon opera once. Strikes me it’s the sort of thing that might turn up on Operavison no doubt updated to 1968 and with guest T34 tank appearance.

You have a treat in store. The 'double lullaby' for the heroine, Vendulka, as she tries to get the baby destined to be her step-child to sleep, while struggling with her own guilt for being alive while its real mother is not, is (for me) a desert island number - especially when sung by Ludmila Cervinková, in the Chalabala recording. One of the subtlest and most unusual scenes in all opera.

[Ein Heldenleben]

You have a treat in store. The 'double lullaby' for the heroine, Vendulka, as she tries to get the baby destined to be her step-child to sleep, while struggling with her own guilt for being alive while its real mother is not, is (for me) a desert island number - especially when sung by Ludmila Cervinková, in the Chalabala recording. One of the subtlest and most unusual scenes in all opera.

The lullaby is familiar through the Renée Fleming recording. Can’t understand why it’s not recorded as much as a certain other soprano aria from a Czech composer.

[Master Jacques]

The lullaby is familiar through the Renée Fleming recording. Can’t understand why it’s not recorded as much as a certain other soprano aria from a Czech composer.

Here is the Chalabala recording, should you have a birthday coming up.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7949723--smetana-the-kiss

I played Cervinkova's 'double lullaby' as part of a Smetana/Dvorak programme I presented to the frighteningly knowledgable Recorded Vocal Art Soc. (not long before Covid), and by the end was astonished to see that about half my expert audience were in tears, in a good way!

[Once Was 4]

The Mackerras is sung in English. I saw this opera a few years ago, also sung in English, at the Leeds Grand Theatre. The production updated the action to Communist-era Czechoslovakia, which worked surprisingly well.

Of the versions listed above, without having heard them, Kosler appeals most given the cast of fine Czech singers.

In the pit in Leeds we wondered if the audience would ever 'get' the rather sick joke about Jan Masaryk which was inserted - they never did.

[Ein Heldenleben]

In the pit in Leeds we wondered if the audience would ever 'get' the rather sick joke about Jan Masaryk which was inserted - they never did.

I thought I was joking about The Kiss being updated to 1968 and it turns out that Opera North beat me to it .

[Master Jacques]

I thought I was joking about The Kiss being updated to 1968 and it turns out that Opera North beat me to it .

That Eastern-bloc Opera North show was, if memory serves, The Bartered Bride rather than The Kiss, but your point is taken! The best Bride in my experience was Peter Stein's straightforward and wonderfully-motivated production for Welsh National Opera, with Helen Field as a perfectly sweet yet citric Marenka.

[Barbirollians]

The lullaby is familiar through the Renée Fleming recording. Can’t understand why it’s not recorded as much as a certain other soprano aria from a Czech composer.

Magically sung by Sena Jurinac on that EMI References disc that includes her live Four Last Songs.

[RobP]

First time ever for this opera on BaL.

Given that the only (semi-)oper(ett)as we've had so far this series were Die Fledermaus, The Fairy Queen and Peter Grimes, I was beginning to think that BaL had given up on the genre.

There is no conceivable way that Grimes could be considered an operetta