Afternoon on 3 - Thursday Opera Matinee - Smetana - The Bartered Bride

Afternoon on 3 presented by Penny Gore. Thursday afternoon Opera In 1909 Mahler was in New York, and, in one of that season's highlights, conducted Smetana's "Bartered Bride" at the Metropolitan Opera House. Rewind to 1871 and this time, Bohemian born, Mahler was a student - for a brief time - in Prague, where Smetana had recently begun writing operas in a "Czech" style - and more importantly in the Czech language. Smetana, along with every other Czech at that time, had grown up with German as the official language of the Austro-Hungarian Empire - he had only started studying the Czech language in his early adulthood - and this idea of a separate Czech national identity was gaining ground around this time. Building work on The Prague National Theatre had begun in 1868 - a symbol of both Cultural and Political national identity, and Smetana's opera writing fate became entwined with that of the National Theatre, which took a further 13 years to complete (1881) against a background of Viennese Austro-Hungarian opposition. This tension between "Imperial" and a "National" identities deeply affected both Mahler and Smetana throughout their lives with Smetana becoming an artistic figurehead for Czech identity and expression, and Mahler attempting to reconcile his mixed Austro/German and Bohemian heritage - Mozart and Wagner were at the heart of Mahler's conducting career, but he could readily appreciate Smetana's deeply Czech inspired Operas too, (he later conducted Smetana's "Dalibor" in Vienna). So, there is some symmetry in Mahler, in later years bringing to New York a work bound up with his youth. The Bartered Bride itself is a comic opera involving two families, an impending marriage, the obligatory mistaken identity and a visiting circus - a rich backdrop to Smetana's music, which, from the well known overture, bristles with energy and an overt Czech-ness. Ondrej Lenárd conducts a Czech cast of soloists, and the Prague National Opera Orchestra and Chorus, recorded last year in the Prague National Theatre - Smetana's spiritual home. Smetana's Bartered Bride Krusina (a farmer) ..... Ivan Kusnjer, baritone Ludmila (his wife) ..... Yvona Skvárová, soprano Marenka (their daughter) ..... Pavla Vykopalová, soprano Mícha (a farmer) ..... Ales Hendrych, bass Háta, (his wife) ..... Lenka Smídová, alto Jeník, (Mícha's son from first marriage) ..... Pavel Cernoch, tenor Kecal (A marriage maker) ..... Ludek Vele, bass 3 Comedians: Jan Jezek, tenor; Marie Fajtová; soprano, Martin Matousek, bass. Prague National Opera Orchestra and Chorus Ondrej Lenárd, conductor 4.45 Dvorak: Othello Concert Overture (Op.93) BBC Symphony Orchestra Jiri Belohlavek, conductor.