Die verkaufte Braut from Munich

Marie and Hans

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Conductor: Tomáš Hanus
Staging: David Bösch

Selene Zanetti (Marie)
Pavol Breslik (Hans)
Günther Groissböck (Kezal)

I was in Smetana's Die verkaufte Braut long ago.  I played Marie's mother. We did it in German exactly as it is here in this live stream from the Bayerische Staatsoper. I even have my old score here near the computer.  Since I began blogging, I have only seen this in London and on DVD.  It is a sentimental favorite. In English we call it The Bartered Bride.

The plot concerns itself with love, of course.  Marie was promised in a contract with Kezal to marry only "Toby Mischa's son."  Who is an idiot who stutters and has a pet pig.  She likes Hans, played by one of the sexiest men on the opera stage.  They give away the plot in the credits which may explain why people think there is no plot.  This is sort of the male version of Cinderella.

My heart leaps at the familiar overture.  The music is lovely, the singing is terrific and Günther Groissböck is a hoot, the best possible Kezal. It's wonderful to see this now and then.  I hated the set.

Popp in Braut

Die Verkaufte Braut or The Bartered Bride by Bedrich Smetana, as it is known in English, is probably performed more in German than in its native Czech. The Viennese love it.

Odd as this may sound at my age, I am trying to question my own assumptions. Lucia Popp should be perfect for Maria, I thought. I will hear her in a role that should completely suit her, I thought, before I decide she is a total loss. Well, I never thought she was a total loss exactly, just not one of the 20 best sopranos of all time.

To make the top 20, in my view, you must have shaken me to the socks at least once. Do one thing perfectly and you're in. Schwarzkopf makes my list by default because of her Marschallin. Price is in for Aida. Lots of people make it in for Wagner, since he is so difficult: Nilsson and Flagstad most notably.  Callas is in for Norma.  De los Angeles is in for La Boheme.

Kiri te Kanawa makes my list for doing the perfect Rosalinde, a personal favorite. I hated Popp's Rosalinde. She completely misses the sophistication the role requires.

Lucia Popp unquestionably does a perfect Marie in Verkaufte Braut. She grasps the music and presents the full range of emotions required for the role. She looks just right and feels right. Her German is beautiful.

Is this enough to thrust her into the top ranks? Not for me, but it does bring her up out of the non-entity category.

This DVD is the Deutsche Grammophon version from the Vienna State Opera with Adam Fischer conducting--a little briskly for my taste, but maybe he's right. The rest of of the cast are excellent. If you like this style of opera, it's a good choice.

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The Bartered Bride

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The Royal Opera has made the most that can be made of The Bartered Bride by Bedrich Smetana, even going so far as to hire Charles Mackerras to conduct it. It was a treat.

Bride is hard to place in the various currents of popular opera. I suppose you could call it a Spieloper, a semi-serious real opera of the type that succeeded the Singspiel. They are entirely sung with songs rather than arias for the soloists. Except Bride is Czech, here sung in English with the supertitles still showing. This means you can mumble your words. Some did. Some didn’t.

I see in Opera Now that there is a recording of this opera with Sir Charles conducting in the opera in English series.

While I was watching it, though, I thought it was most like Oklahoma of any show I have seen. All are family and friends, people you know.

The production took place in a single set, erected in the first act as a kind of communal barn raising. All are in their working clothes and project real happiness. I especially liked the presence of children on the stage. How can it really be a community without children?

The plot of Bride is devious. Mashenka’s parents have arranged through a marriage broker for her to marry Vasek, the son of Toby Micha, while she is in love with Jenik and has promised to marry only him. And besides, Vasek is an idiot.

There is an extended scene where the marriage broker persuades Jenik to give up Machenka in exchange for 10,000 crowns so she can marry “Toby Micha’s son.” I guess I can give away the ending—boy friend is also “Toby Micha’s son” and they all live happily ever after.

There is a not too shabby circus in the third act—maybe not on a par with Cirque de Soliel but fun, with a stilt walker who juggles fire sticks, a contortionist and Esmeralda, a tight rope walker. Vasek runs off with her. I don’t know if a soprano tight rope walker is ever anyone’s break-through role, but you never know.

This is as much as The Bartered Bride can ever be. I didn’t see any children in the audience.

[See Kinderkuchen History 1850-70]