Garsington Opera: The Bartered Bride

Programme

Garsington Opera and the Philharmonia present Smetana’s The Bartered Bride.

This is a story of thwarted love and arranged marriage, an arrangement which the spirited heroine, Mařenka, is not prepared to accept. She has to use every last ounce of determination, charm and cunning that she possesses in order to marry the man she loves, encountering bribery, corruption and parental opposition along the way. Smetana’s opera has come to be seen as a celebration of Czech culture and identity, which translates here into a more familiar setting, complete with village pub and a maypole on the green. Dance is at the heart and soul of The Bartered Bride – from the intoxicatingly lively overture to a riotous and festive polka. There’s a circus with jugglers and acrobats, an escaped bear, rousingly beery drinking songs and heart-stopping love duets and arias. It’s an irresistible combination.

Pumeza Matshikiza sings the title role, with Rosie Purdie directing and Jac van Steen conducting.

Sung in Czech with English supertitles