United Kingdom Garsington Opera 2023 [3] – Bedřich Smetana, The Bartered Bride: Soloists, Garsington Opera Refrain & Philharmonia Orchestra / Jac van Steen (conductor). Garsington Opera at Wormsley, 30.6.2023. (CR)

Manufacturing:
Director – Rosie Purdie
Authentic Director – Paul Curran
Designer – Kevin Knight
Lighting designer – Howard Hudson
Choreographer – Darren Royston

Solid:
Mařenka – Pumeza Matshikiza
Jeník – Oliver Johnston
Kecal – David Eire
Vašek – John Findon
Ludmila – Yvonne Howard
Krušina – William Dazeley
Ringmaster – Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts
Esmeralda – Isabelle Peters
Mícha – John Savournin
Háta – Louise Winter

Paul Curran’s manufacturing of The Bartered Bride was first seen at Garsington in 2019 and lots of, together with myself, extensively acclaimed its vivid reimagining of the state of affairs – intently related to nineteenth-century Czech nationalism – inside Fifties England. Its revival now by Rosie Purdie feels somewhat extra muted and makes me ponder whether such a manufacturing for the very specific, occasional circumstances of a summer time opera pageant, fairly stands as much as scrutiny this second time round.

A connection between Mařenka’s standing up for herself and her freedom as in opposition to the organized marriage made for her, and the pretty regimented society of the Fifties on the verge of transition and sexual liberation within the subsequent decade is hinted at in Pumeza Matshikiza’s daring, assertive characterisation of the position and warmly projected singing (although she is cool and understated initially). However the different indications of a society present process change are much less clearly made than they had been in 2019, or omitted fully, in order that we’re left with, merely, an basically austere setting in a village corridor, then a pub with out a lot dramaturgical or essential remark – it’s neither the nice outdated days of Child Boomers’ nostalgic fantasy, nor precisely a stultifying ambiance of hierarchy and conference (for all that the clergyman resembles Reverend Timothy Farthing in Dad’s Military).

Extra pointedly and sardonic is that the valorising of wedlock (implied by the lengths to which not solely all 4 mother and father of Mařenka and Vašek, and Kecal the wedding dealer go to safe a passable marriage which secures their pursuits, in addition to Mařenka and her beloved Jeník’s personal makes an attempt to thwart that in their very own favour) is seemingly ironised throughout the villagers’ opening refrain. They lament how wedded life simply brings a succession of woe and because the two lovers themselves toil within the kitchen to the facet of the village corridor to make corned beef sandwiches for the church truthful, and Mařenka’s mother and father later do the identical as Kecal goes about securing their daughter’s marriage, it’s hardly the prospect for an exhilarating wedded life. The circus episode in Act III gives good slapstick humour however does look like a distraction from what must be a extra intently built-in drama among the many principal characters, since there isn’t a connection between that spectacle and the settings which have gone earlier than, nevertheless effectively the circus performers current their spectacle right here. What’s successfully a picaresque presentation, subsequently, tends to emphasize the thinness of the drama and libretto, despite the fact that Smetana’s music itself is sort of unfailingly idiomatic and vibrant, in drawing upon Czech dance and people traditions.

Jac van Steen conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in a efficiency that’s strong if, for that cause, just a bit too tame or cautious, and doesn’t inject the final diploma of fizz and bubbles within the polka and furiant rhythms of lots of the opera’s numbers. Just like the manufacturing, it simply falls in need of instilling precisely the sense of urgency in direction of radical change and liberation which the setting is seemingly meant to evoke, and which Smetana meant on this allegory of Czech political freedom, though Garsington Opera Refrain deliver resounding vitality and spirit within the choral sections. The orchestra do obtain a extra creditably sustained symphonic lustre within the accompaniment to Jeník’s lyrical, romantic apostrophe to Mařenka in direction of the top of Act II, and narrative breadth within the extract from ‘Šárka’ (appropriately, the feminine warrior, from Má vlast) which serves because the interlude at the start of that act to allow the scene change to the pub.

Singing within the authentic Czech, the forged are equally reliable if not ideally idiosyncratic. Oliver Johnston is a strenuous Jeník, giving a forthright expression of his emotions for Mařenka, although some tenderness would have been welcome. David Eire is an aptly, comically braying Kecal, as he fumes about cash and the contract for the wedding of Mařenka to ‘the son of Tobiáš Michal’. John Findon is somewhat miscast as Vašek, regarded as the one traceable son answering that description – his well-rounded voice (which barely smooths over the character’s stuttering) and somewhat stately gestures don’t seize the position’s effete, weedy inadequacy as a naïve mummy’s boy (suppose as an alternative of Heinz Zednik’s nuanced charisma within the half for Otto Schenk’s Eighties Vienna manufacturing, on document). The 2 pairs of oldsters (Krušina and Ludmila, and Mícha and Háta) are pretty nameless, aside from a feisty Háta from Louise Winter.

One comes away from the efficiency, glad of a summer time night’s leisure, however not sated with a wealthy dramatic feast.

Curtis Rogers