Opera Club: “The Bartered Bride”

All are invited to watch Bedrich Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride” on Tuesday, Aug. 19, at 1:30 p.m. in the Learning Center of Clubhouse 3.

This comic opera of typical Czech music will be introduced by knowledgeable club member Robert Kastanek, who has studied arranged marriages, still prevalent in many cultures.

Act 1 opens showing Czech villagers celebrating a national holiday with music and dance, where a young couple, Marenka and Jenik, are showing their love and expressing a desire to marry. Onto this scene enters Kecel, a marriage broker, who reminds Marenka’s parents of their prior agreement, for a fee, in arranging a marriage for Marenka to a young man named Varek, the son of Micha, a farmer. When the young couple hears of this they each protest.

In Act 2, the villagers are seen dancing a typical Czech dance, the Furiant, and Kecel tries to convince Jenik to give up Marenka in exchange for money, so Jenik proposes a novel idea: for 300 guilders he will agree to Marenka marrying Micha’s son.

Act 3 shows a circus arriving at the village square where Vasek, (Micha’s son) is disguised as a bear. As Marenks mourns her fate, she then discovers along with everyone else, that Jenik is in fact Micha’s son from an earlier marriage, and is now 300 guilders richer to boot.

The production is in English with English subtitles. People are encouraged to wear masks indoors, if desired. No fees or dues are collected. For more information, contact Margaret Gillon at 562370-3844 or Margaretgi@yahoo.com.

—Sylvan Von Burg