Metropolitan Opera Archives

The Metropolitan Opera Company officially welcomed spring in Baltimore last night with a whirling performance of Smetana's idyll "The Bartered Bride."

Under the direction of Bruno Walter the opera danced from beginning to end.

The flow of Smetana's themes can be compared only to Mozart in its fluency and, as with Mozart, small talk becomes winged when he shapes a melody to it. The scoring is captivating, and the composer has woven a gleaming instrumental fabric, lucidly tuneful, greatly sonorous.

The orchestra warmed admirably to the occasion. Mr. Walter's alert cuing produced an attack of clear edge. The balance was excellent; the blending suave. Mr. Walter brought out certain contours with fine effect, emphasizing melodic patterns that sang out from the harmonic background.

The real hero of this opera is the Bohemian countryside or rather the people, as a whole, who inhabit that countryside and live off its bounty. The central characters around which the plot moves seem but highlights in the picture of an entire community.

The singers entered blithely into the spirit of the performance. The opera was sung in English and - a rare fact in such an experiment - was for the most part clearly enunciated and easily understandable.

Jarmila Novotna was a winsome Marie. Her voice is not large and sometimes failed to project over the orchestra. Too, it had something of an edge, but its color is animated; the timbre is fresh and pleasing.

Charles Kullman, who played the part of Jenik, produced fine tones and phrased smoothly. The most impressive vocalist of the evening was, however, Norman Cordon, who portrayed the pompous, elongated, extravagantly costumed marriage broker.

The lowest tones that Mr. Cordon was called upon to produce were somewhat out of his reach, but his voice is resonant and of heroic power. His characterization had flavor without partaking of burlesque.

Such cannot be said of Karl Laufkötter, who played the part of the lame-witted Vashek. A Czech musical authority Zdneck Nejerdly, in his book on Smetana, says that the composer had in mind here a rather pathetic figure. Smetana was of too noble and sympathetic a temperament to ridicule an unfortunate, this writer points out; therefore a broadly comic portrayal seems out of key.

Smaller roles were capably performed. Fine vocalism was demonstrated by Arthur Kent and Thelma Votipka, who played the parts of Kruschina and Ludmilla, and John Gurney and Irra Petina, were well cast as Micha and his wife. John Dudley was a vivid ringmaster. Natalie Bodanya effective as Esmeralda.

The chorus provided some vivacious singing and added a glorious pageantry of costume as well, a visual effect completed by setting of vernal hues.

The ballet was perhaps not ideal and seemed self-consciously coy at times, but at least the dancing had a kind of loose-jointed peasant ease.

"The Bartered Bride" was the finale to an opera season that had much of brilliance both for the eye and ear. The Baltimore Opera Club and Frederick R. Huber, through whose offices the Metropolitan visit was arranged, should feel gratified because of the merits of the performances and the general approval with which they were received.

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