And it has an anti-hero in the person of a youth with a stammer, who gets laughed at and ends up as a circus bear. The fact that the proposed sale is a trick to enable a genuine love match is the sort ...

Sarah Scott finds The Bartered Bride at the Theatre Royal Newcastle entertaining and a good introduction to opera for newbies Opera North kicked off the latest season at the Theatre Royal with The ...

Although in The Bartered Bride Smetana largely avoided the direct quotation of folksong, the music he composed was considered to be Czech in spirit, meaning that he succeeded in his aim of creating a ...

The Czechiest features of The Bartered Bride – cornerstone of Czech opera and the first to go international after premiering in 1866 – are in the music rather than the story or setting. No accident: ...

Musically, Bedřich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride is marvellous, vivid, dance-infused work. In the second performance of the run, conductor Jac van Steen and the Philharmonia Orchestra were achieving ...

SOME dislike The Bartered Bride because Vasek is a comic character with a stammer. Not right to laugh at people's handicaps, they say. But you could argue that to present him as a sympathetic ...

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Bedrich Smetana described ...

With Sir Charles Mackerras at the helm, Smetana's Bartered Bride not only has a spring in her step, she's several inches off the ground for much of the duration. Mackerras isn't just well-versed in ...

Smetana and the librettist Karel Sabina masterfully mocked all those who expected the “national opera” to be an idyllic picture of the Czech countryside, with its inhabitants being virtuous and ...

Unlock access to every one of the hundreds of articles published daily on BroadwayWorld by logging in with one click. For over 150 years, The Bartered Bride has occupied the top position among Czech ...