Opera Scotland

Bartered Bride 1934Glasgow Grand Opera Society

Read more about the opera Bartered Bride

The Bartered Bride was introduced to Scotland by the Covent Garden opera on tour in 1931 details here. The success of this visit inspired Glasgow Grand to mount their staging in 1933.

The success of that was such that a revival in 1934 was scheduled, with three performances to guarantee a good financial return. This may have seemed a prudent precaution, given that the earlier performances, and the final Saturday night, were devoted to a risky project, in the form of the British premiere of the unknown Idomeneo - Mozart's great opera seria was a complete mystery trip for most of the audience.

One factor that seems striking today is the use of Germanic names for the characters, so Mařenka and Jeník were Marie and Hans, Vašek was Wenzel, Ludmila and Háta were Kathinka and Agnes. However the opera had come to Britain via German sources, and the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, would shortly dismiss Czecho-Slovakia as a far-off land about which we know nothing.

By the end of WWII the situation had changed, and Sadler's Wells Opera converted this into a hugely popular work, complete with the proper Czech names.

Cast details are from a programme in the Mitchell Library collection.