World Premiere: May 30, 1866
Last HSO Performance: October 12, 2013
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani and strings
Duration: 7 minutes

Bedřich Smetana

In plot of The Bartered Bride, inspired by the personalities, customs and lore of the Czech countryside, the lovers Hans and Marie are prevented from marrying by her father, who has secured a more lucrative nuptial arrangement from the village matchmaker, Kezal. Kezal has engaged Marie to the half-wit Wenzel, son of the second marriage of Micha, a wealthy landowner. Hans makes sure that the marriage contract specifies Marie must wed the son of Micha, and then pockets the money Kezal promised him for breaking his betrothal to Marie. With a plot twist worthy of Gilbert & Sullivan, Hans reveals that he is also the son of Micha — by Micha’s first marriage — and claims Marie as his wife. Wenzel, his mind unhinged at the thought of marriage, appears in a bear costume and has to be dragged away while the couple and the villagers celebrate the upcoming wedding. 

The effervescent Overture (“a grand Allegro” said Smetana) was written before the rest of the opera, and served as the source of themes (“leitmotifs”) later used to identify some of the work’s characters and situations. The boisterous opening melody represents the matchmaker Kezal, the vibrant dance strain (announced by the first entry of the full orchestra after a scurrying fugato passage in the strings) accompanies the signing of the marriage contract, and a lyrical theme (given sweetly by oboes in duet) is associated with Hans. The Bartered Bride Overture is a sparkling jewel set into the never-too-large tiara of comic opera, a bubbling prelude that Sir Donald Tovey praised as creating “the liveliest possible comic atmosphere — such as has no overture since Mozart’s Figaro.”