Everything Old Is New Again: 50 Years of Opera Theater at Oberlin by Marci Janas '91
			Marie Masters '05 as Esmeralda and Todd Wedge '03 as Vasek in The Bartered Bride Photo by Gabriel Graff '04 When the curtain rises in Hall Auditorium on November 13, it will have historic significance: this season marks the 50th year of opera theater at Oberlin. The first production in 1952? Smetana's The Bartered Bride. The scene: a Bohemian village festival. The time: the mid-19th century. The dilemma: thwarted love. The Oberlin Opera Theater production of Bedrich Smetana's popular opera, with its rousing choruses, lively dances, jugglers, and acrobats, opens its 21st-century run on Wednesday, November 13, 2002, at 8 p.m. in Hall Auditorium. Additional performances will take place Friday and Saturday, November 15 and 16, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, November 17, at 2 p.m. In the plot, Marenka loves Jenik, but her parents, knowing nothing of his background, do not consider him a respectable suitor. They have promised Marenka in marriage to Vasek, the son of Micha and Hota. A marriage broker offers Jenik 300 Gulden to give up his love for Marenka, and he agrees to the barter on the condition that Marenka will marry "none but Micha's son." Marenka is crushed and the village outraged, but Jenik reveals a surprising twist that brings the story to its happy conclusion. How does a cast of young adults in the 21st century perform an opera that deals with the archaic concept of marriage brokering? "The approach we are trying to take is that the opera concerns a distinct group of people at a specific time, in a specific place. The closer we can come to this, the better we are doing,"explains Director of Opera Theater Productions Jonathon Field. "This community was undergoing changes induced by both internal and external sources. One of those changes concerned the manner in which marriages occurred. At the time of Smetana's opera, the cultural norm of arranging marriages through a marriage broker was growing outmoded, and women were becoming free to make up their own minds about whom they wished to marry. The lead character, Marenka, is in the middle of this changing world, with conflicting loyalties to her parents and to the man she loves." In another instance of everything old being new again, The Bartered Bride will be sung in English in a translation by Judith Layng, director of Oberlin Opera Theater from 1979 to 1996. The conductor is Steven Smith, associate professor of conducting and music director of the Oberlin Conservatory orchestras. For ticket information, call Oberlin's Central Ticket Service at 440-775-8169.
			Back to the Backstage Pass