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Shows
07 Apr 2007
A bride on the market during the Baltimore Lyric
The offering that is latest through the Baltimore Lyric Opera had been Bedrich Smetana’s sparkling comedy Prodana Nevesta (“Bartered Bride”), just a little treasure of Czech intimate nationalism that certain will not see live often today.
The occasion not merely ensured a loaded home during the premiere, but additionally received attention associated with neighborhood chapter associated with Heritage that is czech-Slovak Association. Its users, in nationwide costumes, attended en masse, making for the colorful and theater lobby that is slightly surreal.
One of the production’s worldwide cast, Dana Buresova’s Marenka accordingly enough ended up being the genuine star of Smetana’s charming little town. The Czech soprano laughed, pouted, and schemed her way triumphantly through the night, and fully deserved her standing ovation at the conclusion from it. The voice that is singer’s strong, pure, and also in every registers; it carried effortlessly, and she also thrilled the viewers with a few of impressive – albeit perhaps maybe not totally necessary in Smetana’s score – high Cs. The only thing of which i really could not exactly accept in this Marenka ended up being her flavor in males, for involving the two sons for the honorable Tobias Micha (portrayed honorably by Ukrainian-Canadian bass Alexander Savtchenko) i may have opted for younger one. Us tenor Doug Jones offered an engaging and endearing portrait of this stammering town trick Vasek, plus in the method unveiled not just a pleasant lyric tenor vocals, but a real comic present. Meanwhile, as opposed to personal objectives, I became not too impressed using the greatly advertised talents associated with the Czech tenor Valentin Prolat as Jenek. Prolat wowed the viewers adequately in a couple of powerful scenes in which their strong high register ended up being impressively on display; he acted well, and blended really sweetly with Marenka within the duets, but much too usually his noise felt somehow “switched off, ” which makes it hard to be totally pleased with their performance.
Despite from time to time sounding just a little slim (specially into the sequence section), the orchestra had been exemplary, carried out impeccably by still another import that is czech Oliver von Dohnányi. For the performance he kept good stability, asserting their existence but permitting the vocalists take over because they should in a score similar to this one. The tour-de-force of an overture (those not really acquainted with the music should imagine the fugue from Zauberflöte blended with Mendelssohn’s elves at 3 x the rate) had been specially impressive – strenuous and energetic, yet neat and rhythmically accurate.
Rheinhard Heinrich’s décor took a fold-out children␙s guide as motivation, producing a couple of white-and-brown cardboard dollhouses (with detachable front walls allowing someone to see their interiors) which were “folded” inside and out through the performance in complete view associated with the market. Regrettably, this clever and efficient design proved way too cumbersome when it comes to little stage of this Baltimore Lyric, which designed for an uncomfortably crowded market with near to forty choristers on phase trying (not at all times convincingly) to approximate a polka. The Act 2 furiant ended up better, since the room dilemma ended up being settled by sidelining the chorus and making the thing that was kept of center phase to three pairs of expert dancers.
The phase manager, James McNamara evidently discovered The Bartered Bride, a slow-moving quantity opera, to be always a challenge, along with blackcupid.com his approach ended up being notably a mixture that is stylistic. Many scenes were staged realistically and stuffed full with phase company, possibly too aggressively from time to time ( ag e.g., while distraught Marenka ended up being pouring out her heart into an opening “Where are you from? ВЂќ aria, oblivious groom-to-be Jenek busied himself with very very first breaking then fixing a wood stool he previously first conveniently dragged away from a nearby home). Meanwhile, a few key figures when it comes to principals were presented as cinematic close-ups, with lights dimmed, soloists spotlighted (Jenek’s Act 2 aria had been also done as you’re watching curtain that is lowered, and “stage realism” suspended and only somewhat traditional symbolism, Hollywood-style. Not too the staging solution for every certain scene ended up being fundamentally unsuccessful (although i actually do simply just take exclusion to your Act 3 sextet – a comic family disagreement designed to project supernatural terror), but in some instances i came across myself wishing that the manager would just make up his head.
Towards the market, nevertheless, perhaps one of the most unforgettable moments within the entire manufacturing ended up being undoubtedly the circus scene. Using cue through the geographic provenance associated with the Indian additionally the fake grizzly bear, McNamara made a decision to turn the whole troupe, introduced by the (deliberately? ) out-of-tune trumpet fanfares, in to a crazy crazy West show. The Circus Master, sporting a Texas accent and a cowboy hat, resurrected with this event the spoken dialog tradition through the first type of Smetana’s rating, although we doubt that the written text of their opening statement could have been acknowledged by the composer. Among other items, everybody in this original-language manufacturing had been instantly talking English, including the chorus that reacted with evident comprehension into the Circus Master’s advertisement, and Vasek whom during their comic tries to woo the dancer Esmeralda somehow managed to lose his Czech if not their stammer. The general public had been addressed to a parade of jugglers, acrobats, clowns on stilts, a grunting Indian, a bearded woman weightlifter, and a poorly trained but brightly costumed dog (yes, a proper one) that jumped through one big hula hoop, missed one other, but might have its possibility at a curtain call nevertheless.
The misadventures of the circus mirrored the fortunes of the larger show of which it was a part after a fashion. The bride had been offered with a few panache, a couple of accidents that are unfortunate plus some debateable choices that warranted raised eyebrows through the purists such as for example myself. Yet, at the conclusion of all of it, Baltimore Lyric did find a way to placed on a show that is good and basically, a great show is exactly what opera manufacturing is about.