Smetana’s The Secret is a glowing comedy full of swift-moving motion and good singing in Ostrava – Seen and Heard Worldwide

Czech Republic Smetana, The Secret (Tajemství): Soloists, Choir and Orchestra of the Nationwide Moravian-Silesian Theatre / Jakub Klecker (conductor). Antonín Dvořák Theatre, Ostrava, 8.3.2024. (GT)

Manufacturing:
Stage director – Tomáš Studený
Set designer – David Janošek
Costume designer – Eva Jiřikovská
Movement cooperation – Ladislava Košíková
Refrain grasp – Jurij Galatenko
Dramaturg – Juraj Bajús, Eva Františáková

Solid:
Malina – Martin Gurbaľ
Kalina – Martin Bárta
Panna Róza – Anna Nitrová
Blaženka – Soňa Godarská
Vít – Richard Samek
Bonifác – Josef Škarka
Skřivánek – Martin Javorský
The Bricklayer – Jakub Tolaš
The Innkeeper – Ivana Ambrúsová
Jirka – Aleš Burda
The Ghost of Friar Barnabáš – Roman Vlkovič
Bagpipe participant – Jiří Dvořák

Bedřich Smetana’s seventh and penultimate accomplished opera is commonly referred as amongst his operatic masterpieces. After the extraordinary success of The Kiss (evaluate right here), the libretto is once more by Eliška Krásnohorská, who Smetana trusted a lot that he provided a limitless position to the poet for The Secret – but she by no means accepted a price for any of her librettos. There was a intelligent aspect of promoting by the composer calling it ‘The Secret’ – steering music lovers to invest as to what the key is, slightly than utilizing its authentic title ‘the treasure’. The composer additionally mischievously added to the textual content the point out of 1200 gulden that Smetana was owed by the Prague Provisional Opera Theatre on the time, and right here the Alderman Kalina owes the bricklayer 1200 gulden, which is talked about twice within the opera. The librettist primarily based her plot on the rivalry between the Kalinas and Malinas households, considerably harking back to the feud between the Capulets and the Montagues. In contrast to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the story has an nearly fairy-tale ending.

Krásnohorská’s narrative was influenced by La Fontaine’s fable Les Femmes et la Secret in its portrayal of Bohemian village life with the trivial quarrelling between the 2 Aldermen (the title Kalina means ‘snowdrop’, and Malina means ‘raspberry’), and heightened as a result of their kids fall in love but can’t marry with out parental approval so that they maintain it a secret. Smetana drew on the libretto as a canvas to painting the distinctive characters of the surroundings by which he lived. One other stimulus was the motif of affection blossoming into maturity and the overcoming of life’s obstacles. The secondary plot is one in every of Kalina’s greed and his wounded satisfaction, whereas the villagers are portrayed as comically useless, typically intoxicated, amorous and gossipy.

This manufacturing of The Secret first noticed the sunshine of day on 27 April 2017 on the Antonín Dvořák Theatre in Ostrava. The opera is ready in Bĕlá, a village close to Bezděz Citadel, within the late-eighteenth century (close to a village the place the composer lived). Earlier than the overture to Act I, Kalina and Malina run throughout the stage combating with one another, and one throws down a bunch of flowers. The richly embroidered overture – primarily based on a number of motifs – one revealing the key treasure, one other for Kalina, there’s a totally labored fugue, and a small musical motif akin to the aria ‘Music to the Moon’ from Dvořák’s Rusalka. Dvořák performed the viola within the orchestra which gave the premiere of The Secret.

The curtains opened with the villagers singing a wonderful refrain celebrating the harvest ‘Zitko stunning, the bread’. A component of realism in Smetana’s rating are the usage of picket blocks within the orchestra depicting the peasants’ threshing. The retired outdated soldier Bonifác makes advances to Róza, who rejects him, recalling that her household rejected Kalina as a result of he was poor, and Bonifác accuses Róza of nonetheless loving Kalina, but she claims he betrayed her by marrying another person.

The Aldermen Kalina and Malina enter, and Kalina is knowledgeable by his bricklayer that he owes 1200 gulden for his new home, but there erupts a quarrel among the many villagers who help both Kalina or Malina – which is halted by the Troubadour Skřivánek, who sings a beautiful ballad ‘Yesterday was Sunday’ accompanying his singing with a guitar. His music implies a settling of the dispute between Malina and Kalina, but Kalina’s debt results in a contemporary coNFLict with Malina. A bagpiper performs a Bohemian people melody and the villagers dance a vividly depicted polka, nonetheless, the offended Kalina throws him to the bottom. To cease the combating, Kalina’s son Vít and Malina’s daughter Blaženka calm their dad and mom and take them away. A letter by the deceased Friar Barnabáš is found by Bonifác which mentions a secret treasure that might resolve Kalina’s monetary woes. Kalina tells Vít and Bonifác to maintain it secret, but the outdated soldier tells his pals about it. Smetana’s orchestral rating reprises very subtly a theme From Bohemia’s Woods and Fields when Vít and Blaženka steal a kiss within the moonlight and the second is interrupted by Skřivánek who mischievously broadcasts their secret via his talking trumPet simply to make sure everybody is aware of about it.

In Act II, Kalina takes measures to acquire the treasure singing of his dire plight, ‘I’m a beggar! The ears in debt’ and his need for gold and thus win over his outdated love Róza, he falls asleep, and we see in his dream the procession of ghosts from the previous, together with Friar Barnabáš. The apparitions sing that he ought to search for the treasure, but he’s warned that he can lose his soul and go to hell: ‘Mom of God, graciously present us your face!’ Shocked by his nightmare, Kalina awakes and begins praying: ‘That fairly spectacle!’ The younger lovers Vít and Blaženka meet, and he or she tells him to maintain their love a secret and they’re overheard by outdated Bonifác, who in one other comedian second now tells one and all of their secret love. A spotlight is the aria by Róza, who nonetheless loves Kalina, and outdated Bonifác tells Róza that he nonetheless loves her, however now she rejects him, and now Kalina is found digging for the treasure disappearing right into a secret tunnel and Róza tries to cease him.

In Act III, the villagers are slicing the hops ‘We’re completely satisfied and cheerful!’ and ask Blaženka to sing for them, but her aria ‘Are the hillsides above the waterfalls’ displays her disappointment, and now the disturbed villagers beg Malina to let her marry Vít. However Malina calls for that her father Kalina asks for her hand, but he can’t be discovered. Bonifác says Kalina is gone for good, and foolishly he talks concerning the hidden treasure, and that nobody ought to inform anybody about it. In despair, Vít now says that he’ll go away and return in a yr and show a worthy husband to Blaženka. The villagers now debate the wedding between Vít and Blaženka, but immediately loud bangs are heard as Kalina emerges from a chimney and broadcasts that he has renounced the treasure as a result of he loves Róza and the wedding between Vít and Blaženka is permitted and all ends fortunately.

A lot of the plot is troublesome to comply with – typically resembling a Marx Brothers farce – but the thread operating via is a comedy of Petty greed and ambition over love and advantage. The opera is ornamented with charming arias, duets, choruses and ensemble items which transfer swiftly and maintain the viewers’s consideration.

Of the singers, the Blaženka of Sona Godarská was the excellent vocal star though her character was not so nicely outlined as in her earlier portrayal in The Two Widows (evaluate right here), and plenty of of Smetana’s characters in The Secret are usually not so convincing, but Godarská’s subtle soprano was a excessive spot, as was the Róza by Anna Nitrová whose contralto was finely characterised from being a betrayed lover to her remodeled emotions for Kalina. Of the male characters, the Kalina of Martin Barta was terrific in bringing out each ounce in his mixing infantile self-importance with frantic gluttony, and solely the Bonifác of Josef Škarka approached his degree of characterisation. Richard Samek and Martin Gurbaľ had much less to work with as Vít and Malina – the magnificent refrain was excellent and complemented the amusing moments on stage.

The orchestra was splendidly directed by Jakub Klecker and as soon as once more the ensemble clearly has many distinguished virtuoso musicians, particularly within the woodwinds. Tomáš Studeny’s staging was excellent evincing all of the brilliance of Smetana’s comedian opera, the choreography of the combating was nicely managed by Ladislava Košíková, and along with the colorful costumes by Eva Jiřikovská – starting from pinks and inexperienced colors in opposition to the flowery pastoral milieu of David Janošek’s set – there was a fantastically countrified imagery all through and making this one other triumphant success for Ostrava of their week-long celebration of the composer’s anniversary.

Gregor Tassie