THE BARTERED BRIDE – SMETANA
Presented on Dec 6, 8, 10, 11 by soloists of the Czech National Theatre Prague at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Winter Season
Gabriela Benackova – Marenka
Zdenek Svehla – Jeník
Jaroslav Horacek – Kecal
Milan Karpisek – Vašek
William Young – Krušina
Mary Sheridan – Ludmilla
Ruth Maher – Háta
Brendan Keyes – Mícha
Marta Bohacova – Esmeralda
Patrick Ring – Circus Master
Albert Rosen – Conductor
Jaroslav Horacek – Producer
Listen to this production here:
It was Albert Rosen who had suggested to Colonel O’Kelly the revival of Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride” for the ’71 winter season. The society, it will be remembered, had previously staged this delightful Czech folk opera in 1953 when Vilem Tausky conducted and it was sung in English. On this occasion it would be sung in Czech and the costumes were by courtesy of Prague Opera. Rosen had travelled to Prague to select some of the principals including Gabriela Benackova, Milan Karpisek and Zdenek Svehla. The director was Jaroslav Horacek, who would also play Kecal, a marriage broker, in the production. The task of teaching the chorus to sing in Czech was given to John Brady, the assistant chorus master. He had joined the chorus in the middle 1960s and was an accountant by profession; he was also an accomplished organist and pianist. He found that all his spare time was being devoted to chorus work and he was never free at Easter as they prepared for the spring season. But he had found it absolutely wonderful to sing with the cream of the international guest artists and wouldn’t have missed it for the world. It was Albert Rosen, as conductor of “The Bartered Bride” who first asked him to take the chorus. One day I had a cup of coffee with Albert in his room and he told me the society was thinking of staging the opera and if I would be interested. I didn’t know anything about it but assured him I’d learn Czech and take the chorus during the summer months and in my own time. He took out a piece of paper and wrote out for me the phonetics of the Czech language and later on gave me the opera’s score and I proceeded to write the whole chorus out by hand. Only those chorus members who came to rehearsals during the summer were allowed to sing in the production. I worked very hard and so did the chorus. As the first rehearsal with Albert Rosen approached I worried for fear of anything going wrong, but to my surprise he got emotionally upset when he heard the Dublin chorus singing in Czech and was almost in tears.’ ‘John Brady did a remarkable job,’ recalls Paddy Brennan. ‘I do remember that first rehearsal with Albert Rosen and his words were, “Let’s start,” and after we ran through the chorus part he suddenly closed the music score and walked out of the room. We all wondered if we had got it wrong. John Brady followed him and came back to tell us that Albert was in tears and told him that not only had we got the language correct but conveyed the spirit of the work as well.’ ‘I feel this was a tremendous compliment to John Brady,’ says Barry Hodkinson. ‘I understand he got a Czech member of the RTE Symphony Orchestra to teach him how to pronounce the language and at rehearsals, with the use of a blackboard, he was able to write out the words so that we could speak them as well as sing them. It was a novel approach and fascinating in its own way.’ To John Carney, Czech was a difficult language to adapt for singing, particularly when one was accustomed to highly musical sounds as in Italian. ‘We learned it phonetically with the aid of a blackboard. It was hard work during those summer months but it was more than re-paid by the surprised reaction of Albert Rosen at the first rehearsal. He was very moved and proud, both musically and linguistically.’ To Ann Deegan, Albert Rosen seemed very excited about “The Bartered Bride” and took over the production and his enthusiasm was infectious. And he was fully supported by Czech director Jaroslav Horacek who shared his vision of the work and together they made a great job of it.’ Gabriela Benackova made quite an impression at rehearsals. Some of the chorus members, especially the more romantic males, who described her to me as ‘stunningly beautiful’ and one member dared to say ‘she was the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes on.’ She was in her early twenties and the role of Marenka was ideal for her talents. Mary Sheridan, who was singing her mother Ludmilla in the opera, recalls that she sang radiantly and conveyed to perfection the simple characteristics of the village girl in the story. Carmel McHale was a member of the Ladies’ Committee and a close friend of Albert Rosen, told me later that he was absolutely thrilled by the success of the production. ‘It was an ambition of his, ever since he had come to Ireland, to conduct this opera for the DGOS and felt the cast and chorus had done justice to the work. I know he had predicted a very bright future for Gabriela Benackova; she was a charming young woman with a delightful personality and her singing impressed everyone in the Gaiety.’ Baritone William Young was cast as Krusina and believed singing the work in Czech underlined the artistic progress being made by the society. It was another important milestone in its history. Paddy Ring, who played the Ringmaster, was to agree and added that the talented Czech singers injected an idiomatic touch necessary for such a work. ‘I think that both Czech and Irish singers blended very well.’ To Ruth Maher (Hata) it was an excellent thing for the society to contrast the spring and winter programmes as a surfeit of Italian opera would probably not please the purists. ‘I enjoyed working in “The Bartered Bride” and got some valuable insights into Smetana’s music.’ John Brady would say that RTE’s Gerard Victory had told him that “The Bartered Bride” was one of the best recordings made of any opera from the Gaiety. For his own part, the production was very satisfying and one that had been brilliantly cast. He felt the mixture of Czech and Irish voices had worked very well. He could not say enough about the performance of the chorus. Mary MacGoris (Irish Independent) summed up: ‘An Irish and Czech cast, singing in Czech, brings out all the natural lilt of Smetana’s flowing music which has the fresh sweetness of a bowl of ripe cherries, with Albert Rosen flexibly guiding the singers and the RTE Symphony Orchestra into sympathetic phrasing, perfect tempi and an easy but unflagging impulsion throughout the whole piece.’
(Extracted from “Love and Music: The Glorious History of the Dublin Grand Opera Society” by Gus Smith, 1998)
Opera in Ireland 