The Bartered Bride @ The Lowry

Seventies flares and lovable bears: Opera North’s comic-turned-communist production of The Bartered Bride is well worth Czech-ing it out, especially if you love a bad pun or two. 

He may be a lesser-known composer but when it comes to Bohemian nationalism, Smetana’s your man. The Bartered Bride, first produced in 1866, has a characteristic ‘folksiness’ but ticks all the boxes for comic opera – young sweethearts become tangled in a love triangle, but despite interfering stereotypes and the odd mistaken identity it all ends in a happy marriage.

Sprightly polkas, however, don’t wash with producer Daniel Slater. Fast-forwarded to 1972, Act One reveals an ugly pylon looming over a suppressed community, a Bohemia where movements are cautious, and the skipping, folk-inspired melodies have the bittersweet smack of forced regime. Forget showy slapstick and sentimentality – Mařenka is a bride-to-be of more grit and passion, met by Kate Valentine’s vocal prowess.

It’s well-executed and unpretentious – but I wasn’t laughing. Not until the third act, anyway, where it truly get going. A fantastically engaging circus scene (dense with political reference) is a real highlight. So too is the appearance of Jennifer France as Esmeralda, whose voice is as sparkly as her twinkling costume. She charms a stumbling, stuttering Vašek, superbly sung by Nicholas Watts, who brings to the role all things earnest and lovely (think Colin Firth meets Neville Longbottom, dressed as a bear).

James Cresswell makes a convincing baddy, who's given his comeuppance by Jeník, Mařenka’s swaggering, leather-jacket-wearing lover. Some of Jeník’s lower notes are occasionally lost in the beefy orchestral part, but, under James Holmes’s baton, the players deserve highest praise – an expert blend and blissful woodwind solos emerge from the pitt. The translated libretto incorporates both speech and recitative, delivered with such clarity that surtitles seemed unnecessary.

Things got off to a deliberately slow start, but overall Opera North’s versatile cast make this an impressive revival of Smetana’s work. Equally impressive is the eclectic array of cringe-worthy seventies haircuts on stage, which give context to some spectacular vocal performances.