SMETANA : THE BARTERED BRIDE

As soon as conductor Adam Fischer engages the warp engines and shifts the well known overture into hyperdrive, we know we're in for an exciting performance of Bedrich Smetana's masterpiece, The Bartered Bride. As soon as the wonderful Lucia Popp begins lamenting her impending arranged marriage to the son of the rich landowner Micha from the neighboring village, we know that this will also be a lyrical and emotionally satisfying performance. And as soon as we see the traditional stage sets and costumes, we know that we are witnessing a performance conceived and designed before today's European penchant for updating opera to some strange locale with minimal sets and costumes. This staging of The Bartered Bride is traditional and revels in it.

Filmed live at the Wiener Staatsoper in 1982, the appearance of the townsfolk, wearing their traditional Bohemian costumes, exhuberantly singing and dancing, serves to quickly draw us into the early 1870s and this engaging comedy of love nearly thwarted but ultimately triumphant. Smetana was a confirmed Wagnerian who bridled under the usual criticism of that breed: Wagnerians are great at your typical end-of-the-world conflagration, but they are about as funny as a slow tour of a sausage factory. Smetana set out to prove that he could do funny. The first few years following its 1871 premiere, now in its familiar three act version, were largely unsuccessful. The opera failed to find its audience. All that changed when the libretto was translated into German by Max Kalbeck. It became the basis for the subsequent wildly successful performances at the Theater an der Wien in 1893. It is that German translation that is used here for Otto Schenk's 1982 production.

The late Czech singer Lucia Popp stars as Marenka (Marie). A favorite ever since I first heard her in Klemperer's brilliant 1964 recording of Mozart's The Magic Flute, her ability to fully inhabit a role is in evidence here. Her singing is as lyrically lovely as ever. Siegfried Jerusalem is her beloved Hans. Heinz Zednik is Wenzel, the boy she is forced to marry. Karl Ridderbusch is Kezal, the disreputable town matchmaker. These three Wagnerian singers are a reminder of the roots of this opera and they are splendid. The entire cast is excellent. Superior casting coupled with traditional costumes and lovely set design, yields a positive result: we are pulled, unresisting, into the world of this opera, and we are saddened to leave it when it ends. That's the signature of an exemplary performance. The Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper play beautifully for conductor Adam Fischer. Total time of this DVD is 155 minutes. Sound is in PCM stereo and DTS 5.1, both sounding clear and full. The picture has been digitally remastered and is clear with no artifacts given its age. There are the usual DGG languages, menus and previews.

This is a splendid performance of a great comic opera. It will brighten your day. Strongly recommended. - Mike Birma Buy it now