The Bartered Bride – Opera North

THE RELATIVE popularity of the orchestral numbers – Overture, Furiant, Polka and Dance of the Comedians – has somewhat sidelined the value of Smetana’s opera, now revived in Opera North’s 1998 production of Leeds Ground.

This is good news for the work contains a charming insight into Slavonic country life, beginning as it does with a delicious chorus Let Us Rejoice, quite the equal of many of the Slavonic dances by Dvorak and others.

The familiar staples of romantic opera are soon introduced by a love triangle, curiously uneven as it happens, for one (Jenik) has a glorious tenor role and the other (Vasek) a persistent stammer. No prizes for who wins because even the loser gets a star part in the local circus.

Brenden (correct)Gunnell as Jenik deserves his success because he sings Jenik’s two tenor arias superbly.

And Kate Valentine’s excellent soprano as Marenka chose wisely, allowing Jennifer France as Esmeralda, the circus ballerina, to marry Vasek.

Distraught parents and an avaricious marriage-broker finally accept a sensible conclusion to the plot’s numerous misunderstandings.

*Saturday, Wednesday and October 31. Visit leedsgrandtheatre.com or call 0844 8482700 to book tickets.

Opera North postures current season not the Grand Theatre also includes La Traviata and The Coronation Of Poppea.

John Pettit