Bartered not Martyred

Poor Marenka, the heroine of Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride”, is being sold as bride to an unfortunate young man she rejects; she is deeply in love with Jenik, and as sung by Paul Appleby, who wouldn’t be? Lovely Layla Clair portrays Marenka with charm, wit, enthusiasm and a gorgeous soprano. The chemistry between the two is totally believable. The wealthy suitor Vasek,to whom her father is selling her (to pay off his debt) is sympathetically portrayed by Alexander Lewis; he has a serious stutter and manages to be funny but not ridiculous. Just try making fun of a character with a disabiity in our PC age! Not to worry. The bride is feisty and refuses to martyr herself for the sake of her father. Her sweetheart is cunning and manages to work everything out, even while pretending to barter his own love for filthy lucre. Even Vasek gets his chance at romance with the darling circus performer Esmeralda, beautifully sung by Joyce El-Khoury.

This production was a joint effort of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts at the Juilliard School. The enthusiastic and talented young musicians were members of the Juilliard Orchestra playing Smetanan’s tunefully nationalistic music under the baton of HRH James Levine who well deserved the prolonged standing ovation. Over a velvet carpet of strings, plaintive melodies were spun out by the winds. Levine clearly loves this opera and so do we. Singers belonged to the Lindemann program or the Juilliard Opera. Dancers belonged to the Juiliard Dance Program and the excellent choreography by Benjamin Millepied added to the delights. Marenka’s choreographed tantrum in Act I was hilarious, as was Jenik’s in Act II.

Stephen Wadsworth directed the action with a lot of panache; every action seemed motivated by the dialogue. Thomas Lynch provided an effective unit set--a see-through cafe that revealed the villagers preparing for a festival and later enjoying a circus, complete with a humorous Ringmaster (Noah Baetge) and an American “Indian”, portrayed by an under-utilized Elliot Madore. Much of the audience laughter came from a “Bearded Lady” on point and in travesti (Miles Mykkanen) and the witty performance of the slimy matchmaker Kecal (Jordan Bisch) who had the best dialogue. The reason appears to be that the opera was sung in English which lends itself best to clever rhymes and jerky rhythms. Much was made of the new translation by J.D. McClatchy, not necessarily an improvement over the last translation. With the exception of Kecal’s dialogue, much of the rest was doggerel and accents often fell on the wrong syllables. Obviously, learning an entire opera in a little-sung language like Czech was not possible but I look forward to hearing it sung in Czech someday, even if it involves a trip to Prague.

Mr. Wadsworth’s Director’s Note clearly attributes the updating from the 1860’s to the 1930’s to budgetary considerations and can therefore be forgiven. The few traditional costumes (Martin Pakledinaz) that were seen were resplendent while the 1930’s attire appeared drab. References were made to Stalin and Hitler in an attempt to show resonance with a similar political situation in the original period.

These are small cavils in light of a most entertaining and musically valid performance. Mention must be made of the four parents, all ably sung by Donovan Singletary, Jennifer Johnson Cano, Alexander Hajek and Renee Tatum. The Peter Jay Sharp Theater is just the perfect size for such productions and more collaborative efforts such as this one are eagerly anticipated. Juilliard is indeed a jewel in New York’s crown.

-- Meche Kroop for The Opera Insider